Point of View

Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” makes use of third-person omniscient point of view, in which the speaker’s perspective or subjectivity never plays a part. This makes sense as the speaker is a mere observer rather than a participant in the events; he can only imagine the Battle of Bataclava. In that sense, he is aligned with the rest of the world who “wondered” (31) about the soldiers’ fates. The passivity of that verb “wondered” suggests the little that the observers can do, even if they might object to the rashness of the military policy. In such a situation, the speaker seems to suggest, the best response is to “honour the charge they made” (53), to remember and commemorate the “glory” (50) of the soldiers’ bravery and sacrifice.

The lack of individuality of the poem’s speaker perhaps also simulates, and imitates, the lack of...