In Sophocles's novel "Oedipus the King", the chorus is used as a technique to intensify emotions and accentuate events in the novel. As translator, Paul Roche, expresses in his introduction to this novel, the chorus is used to connect happenings between the "players" and the audience. The chorus, which is a group of Theban elders, comments on experiences in the tragic drama and its progression, thus intensifying emotions stirred up in the audience/ reader. Roche claims that the choruses are "swift, energetic, and moving, but they are not easy" (XVII). Most likely, Sophocles wrote them this way to depict intelligence (therefore making the reader think) and to get a point across clearly, furthering and deepening one's emotions.

Personally, my reaction to the chorus in this play was that it did help elicit a more powerful feeling about an incident, which the narration did not create. For example, the...