According to the modern view of the subject, when we break a structure by loading it in tension, we ought not to regard fracture as being caused directly by the action of the applied load pulling on the chemical bonds between the atoms in the material. That is to say, it is not the consequence of the simple action of a tensile stress as the classical text-books would have us believe.* The direct result of increasing the load on the structure is only to cause more strain energy to be stored within its material.
