Analysis Of The Charge Of The Light Brigade

The Charge of the Light Brigade is a critique against the British Government. Discuss.

The Charge of the Light Brigade by the English Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland Alfred, Lord Tennyson recounts the Battle of Balaclava between the British and the Russian Empire, which took place during the Crimean War. The poem deals with the greatness of dying while serving ones’ country, and the mismanagement of the British Government.

Lord Tennyson’s responsibility as Poet Laureate was to write patriotic poems celebrating and dealing with Britain. In The Charge of the Light Brigade, the author introduces and honours the values of duty, valour and obedience of the British Victorian hero. The first stanza opens in the middle of a battle with “Charge for the guns!” (6) and the place where it takes place. The exclusion of the name of the man who gives the order to attack underlines the importance, within the poem, of the six hundred men of the Light Brigade. Throughout the six stanzas of the poem, we identify

While the poem glorifies and honours the members of the Light Brigade and considers them heroes for dying for their nation, it also subtly suggests the bad decision making of the British Government, for taking part in a clear condemned battle against the Russian Empire, where hundreds of lives were lost. The failure of the battle appears throughout the text with the repetition of the term “Death” and by the use of different literary devices which remind the soldiers ' impossible situation to act according to their moral, as they had to obey the Government’s decisions. From my point of view, Tennyson describes the magnitude of the consequences resulting from the bad management of the British Government by using the figures of the six hundred men, who despite being obedient and brave, lost their lives protecting their nation like