In five pages this paper discusses the importance of the chorus and how it functions in these respective plays. Four other sources are cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: JR7_RAchorus.rtf
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a liaison between the performers and the audience, offering a more personal experience for the audience. There are also times when the chorus serves to offer elements of the story
that may be unclear, or even hidden, giving the audience a sort of upper hand on some of the performers who remain ignorant of the real plot. In short, the
chorus is a very useful tool in plays. In the following paper we examine the significance of the chorus in Sophocles "King Oedipus" and then in Jean Anouilhs "Antigone." The
paper finishes with a comparison and contrast of the two. King Oedipus In the case of Sophocles "King Oedipus" it appears as though the chorus is intended to
be the voice of the people, the voice of the audience. The chorus offers up what the people in the audience may well be thinking. But, because they are not
active participants in the production they have no voice. This is the purpose of the chorus. For example, at one point in the play we see Oedipus examining the
fact that the killers are still loose. He decides that he should issue a policy statement in order to employ help to find the killers. "The chorus, in a song,
calls on the various gods (including Triple Artemis, in her aspects as huntress, moon-goddess, and goddess of dark sorcery), to save them from the plague and from the evil god
Ares, who is ordinarily the god of war but is here the god of general mass death" (Friedlander oedipus.htm). In this we see what is really bothering the people, and
the audience. While "Oedipus issues a policy statement, that whoever comes forward with information about the murder of Laius will be rewarded, and that if the killer himself confesses, he