Tennyson likely included the fictional detail that the Light Brigade was able to break through Cossack and Russian lines "to make the soldiers seem more victorious than they were." This embellishment provides a more heroic narrative, celebrating the bravery and audacity of the soldiers despite the actual outcome of the battle, which was largely a failure. By portraying a moment of triumph, Tennyson elevates the valor of the Light Brigade and creates a sense of admiration for their courage in the face of overwhelming odds.
Read the sentence from “Crimea, 1854.”
It was a fiasco and only a charge by French cavalry saved the Light Brigade from total destruction. The battle ended with the Russians retaining their guns and their position, although they had failed to break through the British lines.
Read the lines from “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder’d.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel’d from the sabre stroke
Why would Tennyson include the fictional detail that the Light Brigade was able to break through Cossack and Russian Lines?
Crimea, 1854
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Responses
to make the battle seem more vivid for readers
to make the battle seem more vivid for readers
to deny that Britain had lost the battle
to deny that Britain had lost the battle
to make the soldiers seem more victorious than they were
to make the soldiers seem more victorious than they were
to make the commander’s blunder seem less bad
to make the commander’s blunder seem less bad
1 answer