Role of Chorus in Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex
Oedipus the King is a tragedy by the ancient Greek writer Sophocles performed in about 429
BCE. It was the second of Sophocles three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first in the
internal chronology.
Oedipus Rex is a Greek tragedy that tells the story of King Oedipus of Thebes, who is fated to
kill his father and marry his mother. Thebes is struck by a plague that will only be lifted if the
man who killed the former king is exiled. The prophet Teiresias claims the murderer is Oedipus.
The play is about that it is useless to try to escape the power of fate. The attempt of Oedipus' to
bypass the prophecy which states he will kill his father and sleep with his mother ironically leads
to the fulfillment of these awful conditions. Had he not run away from his adopted parents,
Polybus and Merope, in Corinth, he would have never crossed paths with his biological parents,
Laius and Jocasta. The most admirable trait of Oedipus is his determination, commitment to
truth and justice, and his desire to be a good king to Thebes' people

Characters in Play
Oedipus
The protagonist of Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus. Oedipus becomes king of Thebes
before the action of Oedipus the King begins. He is renowned for his intelligence and his ability
to solve riddles he saved the city of Thebes and was made its king by solving the riddle of the
Sphinx.
Jocasta
Oedipus’s wife and mother, and Creon’s sister. Jocasta appears only in the final scenes of
Oedipus the King. In her first words, she attempts to make peace between Oedipus and Creon,
pleading with Oedipus not to banish Creon.
Antigone
Child of Oedipus and Jocasta, and therefore both Oedipus’s daughter and his sister. Antigone
appears briefly at the end of Oedipus the King, when she says goodbye to her father as Creon
prepares to banish Oedipus.
Creon
Oedipus’s brother-in-law, Creon appears more than any other character in the three plays
combined. In him more than anyone else we see the gradual rise and fall of one man’s power.
Early in Oedipus the King, Creon claims to have no desire for kingship. Yet, when he has the
opportunity to grasp power at the end of that play, Creon seems quite eager.
Polynices
Son of Oedipus, and thus also his brother. Polynices appears only very briefly in Oedipus at
Colonus.
Tiresias
Tiresias, the blind soothsayer of Thebes, appears in both Oedipus the King and Antigone. In
Oedipus the King, Tiresias tells Oedipus that he is the murderer he hunts, and Oedipus does not
believe him. In Antigone, Tiresias tells Creon that Creon himself is bringing disaster upon
Thebes, and Creon does not believe him
Chorus
Sometimes comically obtuse or fickle, sometimes perceptive, sometimes melodramatic, the
Chorus reacts to the events onstage. The Chorus’s reactions can be lessons in how the audience
should interpret what it is seeing, or how it should not interpret what it is seeing.

Role of Chorus

The Chorus is a group of actors that together speak, sing, and dance in one body. The Chorus is
part ritual part thematic device that play a much larger role in Greek Tragedy than in the other
genres. One of the primary functions of the chorus is to provide atmosphere and, in some ways,
underscore the tragic action. Because Oedipus is the king of Thebes, having the chorus represent
the elders of Thebes is appropriate for the play. Oedipus Rex is actually one play in a three-part
series and all three of the plays have Theban elders as the chorus. They function, scholars have
suggested variously, to offer a sense of rich spectacle to the drama; to provide time for scene
changes and give the principal actors a break; to offer important background and summary
information that facilitates an audience's ability to follow the live performance; to offer
commentary
The chorus appears five times in Oedipus Rex, and each ode they sing makes a reflection upon
each climatic situation. The first song of chorus sound immediately after Oedipus has declared
his resolution to trace the murderer of Laios
The functions of the chorus in this play can be categorized into five headings: 1) mediating, 2)
evaluating, 3) foreboding, 4) guiding, and 5) dramatizing.
1. The most important role of the chorus in this play is to mediate or play the role of middlemen
between the imaginary world of the drama and the real world of the audience. They mediate in
terms of space and in terms of understanding. Because the scene (stage) was too distant from the
immense theatron (seeing place), the chorus had to play the role of coming in between the two
places and making the audience overhear them more easily. They sang aloud commenting on the
dramatic actions and situations moving towards the audience and going round the orchestra (their
dancing place in between the stage and the stadium). But moreover, filling the gap of space, they
also came in between (mediated) the audience in terms of understanding.
2. Another important role of the chorus was to comment and evaluate the incidents and
developments, characters and themes of the drama. In the present drama, the chorus comments
on the fall of Oedipus, on his greatness, on his weakness, and in general in the destiny and frailty
of man. Without their comments, the drama would have lost much of the meaning and
perspective that Sophocles wanted to convey to his audience.
3. The chorus typically seems to suggest what is going to happen next, thereby suggesting to us
to get ready and accept things as they happen. The forebodings of the chorus are however not
always reliable. This keeps the dramatic tension intact. We feel that the chorus is a fully reliable
group of wise old men, and even think that they can know the future or the truth of anything. We
see that they are exchanging and learning, much like ourselves.

4. The chorus plays the role of guiding our emotions, response, and our understanding. They tell
what to feel, what to say and how to look at and evaluate what happening on the stage. They
convey the appropriate kind of feeling when any significant development or discovery takes
place in the world of the characters
5. The chorus also dramatizes the process of the drama. They said the characters prepare by
letting some time pass. This also authorize the audience to prepare themselves for the next scene.
The chorus dramatizes their own development. They sometimes think and doubt, wish and
expect the wrong. They are much like us, as they are undergoing the process of being educated
and enlightened by the experience of the reality of life. In the beginning they only express some
faith in the gods, but they disbelieve and even disregard the prophecy of Teiresias by saying that
"these evil words are lies"