CHORUS

According to Encyclopedia Britannica "The chorus in Classical Greek drama was a group of
actors who described and commented upon the main action of a play with song, dance, and
recitation." Choral music is interwoven into the drama to develop a deeper sense of emotional
urgency, to express meaning emotionally rather than simply logically.

The origins of the chorus in particular may have stemmed out of ancient rites and rituals with
elements of song and dance, and most importantly – the gathering of people. One of the
ingredients of Tragedy as specified by Aristotle is thought. Chorus is one of the principal
vehicles of thought. Tragedy arouse out of the chorus, whether Dithyrambic or some other sort.
Greek tragedy had its beginnings in choral performances, in which a group of 50 men danced
and sang dithyrambs—lyric hymns in praise of the god Dionysus. In the middle of the 6th
century BC, the poet Thespis reputedly became the first true actor when he engaged
in dialogue with the chorus leader. Choral performances continued to dominate the early plays
until the time of Aeschylus (5th century BC), who added a second actor and reduced the chorus
from 50 to 12 performers. Sophocles, who added a third actor, increased the chorus to 15 but
reduced it to a mainly commentarial role in most of his plays (for an example of this role as
shown in the play Oedipus the King). The chorus in Greek comedy numbered 24, and its function
was displaced eventually by interspersed songs. The distinction between the passivity of the
chorus and the activity of the actors is central to the artistry of the Greek tragedies. While the
tragic protagonists act out their defiance of the limits subscribed by the gods for man, the chorus
expresses the fears, hopes, and judgment of the polity, the average citizens. Their judgment is the
verdict of history.

As the importance of the actors increased, the choral odes became fewer in number and tended to
have less importance in the plot, until at last they became mere decorative interludes separating
the acts. During the Renaissance the role of the chorus was revised. In the drama of Elizabethan
England, for instance, the name chorus designated a single person, often the speaker of the
prologue and epilogue, as in Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.

Chorus serves different purposes for the playwright. As there was this clear need to distract the
audience while the actors went off-stage to change clothes and costumes, and perhaps prepare for
their next role. Aside from the practical the chorus would have had numerous functions in
providing a comprehensive and continuous artistic unit. Firstly, according to a view accepted by
many scholars, the chorus would provide commentary on actions and events that were taking
place before the audience. By doing this the chorus would create a deeper and more meaningful
connection between the characters and the audience. Secondly, the chorus would allow the
playwright to create a kind of literary complexity only achievable by a literary device controlling
the atmosphere and expectations of the audience. Thirdly, the chorus would allow the playwright
to prepare the audience for certain key moments in the storyline, build up momentum or slow
down the tempo; he could underline certain elements and downplay others.

Chorus, however, plays different role in different tragedies. It is the protagonist in in The
Suppliants. In the Prometheus Bound and the Agamemnon, the chorus is the sympathetic
observer rather than an active participant. In The Choephorae, it takes a minor share in the
action of misleading Aegisthos, but in The Eumenides, the chorus is a prominent participant in
the action.

In Aeschylus’ “Prometheus Bound”, the chorus is composed of Oceanids (nymphs from the
ocean, the children of the sea god Oceanus and his wife Tethys). Aeschylus changed the role of
the chorus which brought criticisms from Aristotle who his Poetics suggested that
“he diminished the importance of the Chorus” (Aristotle 5), and by more modern writers such as
H. D. F. Kitto who in his Greek Tragedy: A Literary Study writes “Aeschylus arranges things
differently. He makes the chorus do what Greek choruses are supposed never to do: to take a part
in the action.”

In the works of Nietzsche the chorus takes on a completely new and profound philosophical
meaning. In his The Birth of Tragedy Nietzsche presents a view of a distinct dissonance between
what he calls the Apollonian and the Dionysian paradigms, referencing to the dramatic and
choral qualities of Greek drama respectively. In a metaphysical framework the chorus is the
essence of the play and embodies a certain Dionysian consciousness which deals with the primal
realms of the human condition.

The use of the Chorus in Elizabethan plays derives ultimately from its use in Ancient Greek
drama. In Shakespeare's King Henry V (1599), for instance, a play which includes military
sieges and battle scenes, the Chorus is used to ask the audience to exercise their imaginations to
conceive of such vast doings taking place in so small a theatre. Marlowe employs chorus
in Doctor Faustus for a number of functions.

In the modern theatre chorus has become almost of no use. G. B. Shaw has used prefaces and
elaborate stage directions which serve the purpose of the Greek chorus.

The chorus comments on the action in lyrical speeches. Thus they add lyrical splendour to the
drama and help in transforming horror and pain to beauty and music. It also knows the past,
observes the present and has shrewd sense of the future. It participates in the action in the sense
that it suffers it consequences.

Aristotle says in his Poetics that chorus “should be an integral part of the whole, and take share
in the action.” But in the Problemata he admits that “action is not fitting for the chorus”. The
main function of chorus is dancing and singing. Twelve or more persons always standing on the
stage cannot effectively participate in any action. They interfere with dramatic probability and
movement. It has been rightly said that the chorus contributes “in some degree to the progress of
the action, by active offices of friendly assistance as, for example, in the Philoctetes, and the
Ajax of Sophocles”.