The Role of Chorus in Agamemnon, a Greek Drama

This essay examines the role of the chorus in Agamemnon, a Greek drama, and how it helps the audience understand the development of the play. The chorus acts as a liaison between the action and the audience, providing information, interacting with characters, and giving hints to the audience to understand the story. The chorus also plays a significant role in building the atmosphere and conveying important themes in the play.

Running head: THE ROLE OF CHORUS IN AGAMEMNON, A GREEK DRAMA.
THE ROLE OF CHORUS IN AGAMEMNON, A GREEK DRAMA.
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THE ROLE OF CHORUS IN AGAMEMNON, AN ANCIENT GREEK DRAMA
In the Greek tragedies like Agamemnon, Aeschylus has given a new concept of
Athenian democracy. In Agamemnon, the chorus plays the most effective role for the
disrespectful people who are deprived by the ethical values of the society (Bakola, 2018). The
chorus comprise of the old citizens of Argos, who offer their services to the queen
Clytemnestra during the absence of her husband Agamemnon. This essay intends to examine
and critically analyse the role(s) of the chorus in Agamemnon, and also explain how it helps
the audience understand the development of the play. In the play, the chorus plays the role of
a character, as well as an interpreter of the action. The most import role that they have played
as a liaison between the action and the audience.
In the play Agamemnon, the chorus has given the entire information, the background
of the story along with the character sketches of every individuals of the Trojan Troops
(Calero, 2019). They have also interacted with the characters to improve and develop their
personalities. In Greek drama, mostly the one character or one actor used to perform, but
gradually it had enhanced in number which was not more than three persons the stage. It was
important to divert the attention of the audience on that time while the actors used to go to the
back-stage for their further role or to get dressed. The main purpose of the chorus was to give
the hints or informative ideas to the audience to make them understand the story (Gasti,
2015). Sometimes they had to come in between the object and the action.
On the other hand, in Agamemnon the chorus had numerous functions to play. They
made the audience more comprehensible in their understanding of the subject of the drama,
along with its artistic unit. Firstly, it has seen that some of the views which had been accepted
by many scholars stated that the chorus in Agamemnon had been providing a series of
comments on actions along with the events that were taking place before the actions were

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THE ROLE OF CHORUS IN AGAMEMNON, AN ANCIENT GREEK DRAMA
going to start before audience (Grinberg, 2016). This made the chorus to be very connective
between the audience and the major characters. Secondly, the chorus had to abide by the
playwright to make a kind of intricacy of literary format which was the only gaining factor by
a literary device which had the power of controlling the ambience along with the expectations
of the audience. Thirdly, the chorus had given the permission to the playwright to make the
audience get involved with certain key factors or few moments in the storyline, to increase
the inertial motion, or to reduce the frequency so that they could emphasis to those certain
elements and trivialize others. Some of the usage of the written structure-making domain had
been observed in most the classical plays (Karas, 2017).
Another important role that has been observed in this play is the sense of evil while
interacting chorus with another character Cassandra in Agamemnon. At the same time,
another scarcity had been emerged when the chorus had talked about the arrival of Orestes
from the countryside to take the revenge of his father (Trieschnigg, 2016). On the other hand,
the chorus were very make debate for the various arguments along with them were holding an
argumentative nature among themselves. This evidence has witnessed when Aegisthus and
Clytemnestra were conclusively achieving their ultimate success by killing Agamemnon, the
king.
In this play, Aeschylus has utilised the different aspects of a chorus to give attention
to some of the themes to develop the plot. At first, it has been seen in Agamemnon there was
not only the character Clytemnestra, who had a doubtful fear upon Agamemnon that he could
find a better solution while returning back to his country (Sidiropoulou, 2018). Clytemnestra
was very much confident about the situation that Agamemnon could take revenge with his
wife who was unfaithful. On the other hand, Clytemnestra and others were very much
worried about the king who himself might be the burden of all his follies and flaws. In the
second scenario, Agamemnon had felt the guilt for the sacrifice of his own innocent daughter.

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THE ROLE OF CHORUS IN AGAMEMNON, AN ANCIENT GREEK DRAMA
In every Greek drama, the combination of chorus and the actors have been maintained very
clearly. The usage of the chorus is very much depends upon the playwrights as well as the
demands of the drama or the play.
The chorus is also very significant in this play, for their songs which help to
understand the proper environment. It has also built the impending violence which would
have followed soon. In this play sometimes chorus has become the central part of the tragedy.
While going to discuss the function of the chorus in Agamemnon, the first comment that has
been received by Clytemnestra from the watchman was that she had a will of men instead of
a woman. While she appeared for the first time in front of the chorus, she has finished her
speech by taunting them. She has revealed that their world is like the women’s world and all
their activities are just like women’s activity. The chorus has occupied most of the lines in
Agamemnon (Havelková, 2016).
The chorus has also given the prior informations of the play. They have given the
proper background of the Trojan War, the abduction of Helen and for that instance the ten
years of the warfare between Greece and Troy. It has also given some of the descriptions
which had not to happen within the main context of the drama. The chorus has shown how
Menelaus and the other had Greeks had been disappeared from the sea, how Agamemnon had
sacrificed for his own daughter Iphigenia. Here in this play the chorus have also given a
lengthy description of Helen. The act of the chorus was omniscient, this is very beneficial for
the audience to understand the viewpoint of the characters. In this play the chorus has been
seen as the minor character. In Agamemnon, the chorus has given all the evidences of a
uniqueness in the characters of the Argos, and they always have acted like they knew every
audience.

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THE ROLE OF CHORUS IN AGAMEMNON, AN ANCIENT GREEK DRAMA
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