Essay: Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King is a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles. The story is about Oedipus who becomes the king of Thebes. Throughout the play he finds out that he is unknowingly married to his mother and killed his father. The point of view of the chorus and therefore the purpose is a different one than the rest of the play. Its main intention is giving background information and providing more insight in the story and the characters to follow the performance. It acts like a “narrator” at the beginning or end of a scene.
The Choruses play a very important role in Greek tragedies. In Oedipus Rex each of them consists of two to three Strophes along with their Antistrophes. For most of the readers it is more difficult to understand compared to the scenes because it is written in more obscure verses rather than flowing dialogues. Still it makes a significant difference to understand the chorus in order to feel more connected to the rest of the story. As a reward the spectator can follow the scene easier. The speaker of the Chorus can be one speaker who is representing the observation of feelings of a group, in this case the audience of the play or the citizens of the city. It describes the view of society and does not represent the view of the protagonist. This group of people that is representing the chorus seems very reliable when it comes to the past and the present but they just seem to foreshadow future events. They react to the scenes as expected. By expected is meant that the majority of the average men would respond to the events the way the speaker of the chorus does.
The first Chorus in contrast to the others called Parodos describes the situation in Thebes and how bad things are there. Since they have to fight against a seemingly unstoppable plague they are looking for the help of the gods mainly for Apollos. The Chorus is often a summary of the dialogues before. It can also be considered as a break in the action and giving an insight in the citizen’s feelings. It serves the point of view of an everyday man, who is facing an unsolvable and hopeless situation. The reader would never get to know this point of view without the chorus.
The second and third Chorus makes the reader feel a bit insecure, because the city does not know if they should believe the old blind man, who said that Oedipus was the killer or not. They are beginning to doubt Oedipus’ strength and his innocence. The citizens hope to stay safe and even pray for “the laws of the pure universe” (Sophocles Ode 2 Line 4). It all serves as an emotional bridge between audience and speaker and shows their reaction to what happens in the actual story. We get to know a good insight in the public opinion. We also receive the information that the gods Zeus and Apollo usually know everything (Sophocles Ode 1 Line 29). In this case the chorus helps us to understand the play better by giving us details about history and important background information.
The fourth Chorus contains more positivity and makes the audiences feel excited. It questions where Oedipus was born or found respectively and that he is probably coming from a good family background. The Chorus gives the reader hope again that it might turns out to be a happy ending for Oedipus.
Furthermore Sophocles is trying to make clearer what the moral of the whole story is. For example in the last chorus he reminds us that we cannot determine our fate, so that the future is unpredictable. He wants to let us know that there is nothing Oedipus can do about what happened to him by saying that Oedipus is “Grounded under bitter faith”. (Sophocles Ode 4 Line 30). Additionally, by saying “most pitiful is this man’s story” (Sophocles Ode 4 Line 28) he wants the audience to feel compassionate about what happened to him. It changes the view we have of Oedipus significantly. This example of a Chorus that comments on different events and gives them deeper meaning by providing more information, so the audience can better understand the purpose of the scenes.
The Choruses change the mood of the audience significantly during the play. They are in some way leading the reader through the story. Sophocles is trying to distract us a little from our own opinions. During the scene with its dialogues we are forming an opinion in our minds that is afterwards influenced by the chorus. Sophocles is able to judge any situation and make the audience feel and think a certain way, because he is not part of the happenings in the play. He unwittingly urges us to have the same view of Oedipus as the people from the Thebes do. They respect and honor the king very much, even though they start doubting his authority. Oedipus gets characterized significantly throughout the choruses. An individual character could never portray what the chorus does. A dialogue will never be able to transfer as many emotions as a narrative text can. It expresses what the protagonist or any other performer cannot say for example worries and fears. We also get to know values and beliefs people at this time were standing up for.
To sum up the choruses tells us things no one else can and therefore plays a very important role in this tragedy. Even if it might be harder to read than the rest of the text it helps the reader a lot to better connect to the play, by explaining circumstances. It makes us feel more part of the play and provides us with important knowledge. Throughout the play the view we have of Oedipus always changes a little bit. Every Ode represents a public opinion of Oedipus that changes slightly. We can decide by ourselves if we want to believe it or not.