“ ROLE OF CHORUS ”

In Sophocle’s drama “Oedipus Rex” the Chorus is used as

technique to intensify emotions and accentuate events in the
drama.

As translator Paul Roche expressing in his introduction to this

drama,

“ The Chorus is used to connect happenings between the

Players and Audience. The Chorus which is a group of Theban
elders, comments on experience in a tragic drama and its
progressions, thus intensifying emotions stirred up in the
audience/readers.”

Roche claim that the choruses are,

“Swift, energetic and moving but they are not easy.”

Chorus is also used to speed up the play. It helps the writer to

convey the audience, the message that cannot be dramatized e.g.
the fight between the gods.

It is also a kind of prediction. It is just like guide for the hero as

well and, we find that Greek society depends much on poetical
style, chorus helps to fulfill the requirement.

According to Aristotle,

“The main function of the poetry is to harmonize the feelings and

passion of man, which chorus satisfied them fully.”
It is also said that chorus is a “Neutral commentator”infact, in
almost all the plays, the chorus has a very stance, slaint and
identity.

In this sense they are vital dramatic tool for the dramatist,
switching their sympathies between the principal actions and their
viewpoint from that of the characters to that of the audience. They
thus mediate the dramatic experience, focus the audience’s
response and introduce a symbolic and ritualistic element.

Sophocle’s Oedipus Rex was perhaps the finest addition to

the long dynasty of Greek tragic most notably the way in which the
tragic protagonist act out their defiance of the limits subscribed by
the gods for man, which the chorus expresses the fear, hopes and
judgment of the polity, the average citizen.

According to Aristotle’s theory of tragedy, “The function of

the chorus is to comment on the action and sometimes to narrate
events.”

The major role in Oedipus of the chorus as previously outlined is

that of commentary. The chorus clarifies the situation to the
audience in a way that enables the audience to fully comprehend
the native and general ebb and flow of the plot. For example when
at the end of the play, when Creon ‘s final words have been
uttered, the chorus comments on the fate of Oedipus saying,

“From hence the lesson learn ye, to reckon no man happy till
ye witness the closing day.”

Here we can see the role of commenting on the action in giving the
subsequent verdict of history. The chorus comments on the plot
lucidly, enabling us to reach a greater understanding of the play
and the philosophical values it subscribed to. Thus it could be
argued that it increases our satisfaction and feeling that we have
learnt something above and beyond the mere narrative plot.

In addition to this the chorus also has a significant past to play in

the expression of the fear and hopes of the populace. An example
of this fear shown on the first entrance of the chorus, before the
horrific reality as yet known:

“ I faint for fear, through all my soul, I quiver in suspense, In

brooding dead, what doom of present growth, Or as the months roll
on, thy hand will work:”

Before the audience would have come to see the play, in the past
and the present, they would have known something of what is
arguably the most infamous tales in history. The emphasis on the
development of not only the conscious but also the subconscious
irony inn Oedipus adds to its effect on the audience. The chorus
through echoing the thoughts of the populace, as demonstrated
here, is of paramount importance in its development.

Another role that chorus was given by Sophocles was to highten

the tragic nature, the tension and the overall effect of the play.
Throughout many areas in the play we can see the chorus
emphasizing certain points that bear real significance in the play.
The previous example certain many references to this by
emphasizing the futility of the resistance to the omnipotent gods,
the chorus hightens the tragic credentials of the play. By also
concentrating the plot on a single interest. It also again confirms to
the theoretical nature of the Greek tragedies.

The chorus intrinsic as the highteners and emphasizes of the

tragedy also extends into the other realm of tragic theory.
The chorus has a great importance in the structure of Greek
tragedy. Infact a Greek tragedy is constructed with reference to the
chorus. The ‘Prologue’ is the one, which proceeds the first entry of
the chorus, next to it, comes the paradose, which is the song by the
chorus as it enters the stage. The action of the play itself is
separated by past or episodes or by the songs of the chorus.

It must be understood that from the time of the first entry upto the
conclusion of the play the chorus never left the place. Even
between the conversation of Queen and King, chorus was there.
The chorus never takes a hand in the play but shoot of this; it
contributes to the action of the play in several ways. The
Sophoclian chorus is generally a past and paved of the play. This is
especially true in Oedipus Rex. As a critic observes: “ The chorus
in Sophocles play is blended so artistically with the other position,
that it adds to the beauty of the whole, without impairing the tragic
interest.

The chorus also helps to add continuity to the plot. When in

between individual scenes, an actor needed to change costume, the
brief interlude provided by the chorus would help as insure the
fluency of the action. By entering and commenting lucidly upon
the action and offering new insights the play becomes arguably
less erratic and less disjointed.

Another role that has been