Chorus

Chorus helps distinguish differences between classical tragedies and contemporary theater. Chorus has gradually lost its initial significance, However, In the plays of Sophocles, choruses still hold power of expressions, and they usually consisted of elders, the Gerousia, voicing the opinions of people and urging cautions. “Originally the chorus probably consisted of fifty singers standing in a circle in the midst of the audience” (36). The choruses are usually composed of young girls, women, soldiers who simply represent the people, the polloi. These groups “speak on a level different from that of the hero” (39). Furthermore, the chorus also prepares the audience for what is about to happen. “A premonition of catastrophe or jubilation at the approach of some happy event is contained in the song or can be detected in the movements of the dance” (40). The chorus neither represents the voice of the audience nor of the dramatist but stands between them. One of the most significant function of choruses is to convey the moods of the dramatic situations to the audience.

In Euripides play Medea, the chorus is made up of Corinthian women. The purpose of the chorus is to operate as a narrator would, although many times the chorus interacts with Medea. The chorus understands Medea’s pain from her husband Jason abandoning her and the family, except when Medea plots to kill her children.