ROLE OF CHORUS IN DRAMA

WITH REFERENCE TO DOCTOR FAUSTUS

Prepared by: Dr Mamta

Hans Raj Mahila MahaVidyalaya, JAlandhar

BACKGROUND

• The chorus in Classical Greek drama was a group of actors who described and commented upon the main action of a play with song, dance, and recitation.
• In the middle of the 6th century BCE, the poet Thespis reputedly became the first true actor when he engaged in dialogue with the chorus leader.
• By the time of Aeschylus (5th century BCE), who added a second actor and reduced the chorus from 50 to 12 performers
• Sophocles, who added a third actor, increased the chorus to 15 but reduced it to a mainly commentarial role in most of his plays

FUNCTION OF CHORUS

• In the early days of Greek drama there was only one actor on stage, playing all the different parts. The introduction of the chorus , then, was largely practical. It provided the audience with a distraction while the sole actor went off stage to change or prepare for his next role.
• The chorus represents, on stage, the general population of the particular story, in sharp contrast with many of the themes of the ancient Greek plays which tended to be about individual heroes, gods, and goddesses. They were often the same sex as the main character. In Aeschylus' Agamemnon, the chorus comprises the elderly men of Argos, whereas in Euripides' The Bacchae, they are a group of eastern bacchantes, and in Sophocles' Electra, the chorus represents the women of Argos. In Aeschylus' The Eumenides, however, the chorus takes the part of a host of avenging Furies.

IN THE SURVIVING GREEK TRAGEDIES, THE CHORUSES REPRESENT:

CHORUS IN RENAISSANCE PERIOD

• Italian dramatists long remained slaves to ancient models like the plays by Euripides, Sophocles etc.
• In England, however, during the Renaissance the role of the chorus was revised. In the drama of Elizabethan England, for instance, the name chorus designated a single person, often the speaker of the prologue and epilogue, as in Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.

USE OF CHORUS IN DOCTOR FAUSTUS

• The technique of the chorus is adapted from the traditions of classic Greek drama.
• he chorus functions in several ways throughout the play.
• It stands outside the direct action of the play and comments upon various parts of the drama.
• The opening speech of the chorus functions as a prologue to define the scope of the play

CHORUS AS THE PROLOGUE

• The chorus speaks directly to the audience and tells the basic background history of Faustus and explains that the play is to concern his downfall.
• The chorus is also used to express the author's views and to remind the audience of the proper moral to be learned from the play itself.
• The chorus speaks in very formal, rhetorical language and explains that the subject of this play will not be that which is usually depicted in dramas.
• It clearly mentions that the play will not deal with the popular themes like love or war, rather it will present the history of a scholar.

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CHORUS AS THE VOICE OF THE PLAYWRIGHT

• Marlowe is preparing the audience for a departure in subject matter.
• The purpose of this explanation is that, traditionally, tragedy had dealt with such grand subjects as the history of kings, great wars, or powerful love affairs. Most frequently, tragedy is concerned with the downfall of kings
• Marlowe's tragedy does not fit into this formula since this drama deals with the downfall of a man of common birth.
• Hence chorus lays out the general outline of the theme.

IMAGERY USED BY CHORUS

• The Icarus image is used in the opening passage to characterize the fall of Faustus. Icarus was a figure in classical mythology who because of his pride had soared too high in the sky, had melted his wax wings, and subsequently had fallen to his death. This classical image of the fall of Icarus reinforces the Christian images of the fall of Lucifer
• Another image used by the chorus to describe the situation of Faustus is that of glutting an appetite by overindulgence.
• Faustus is seen as a person of uncontrolled appetites. His thirst for knowledge and power lead him to make the pact with the devil which brings about his downfall. The chorus points out the dangers involved in resorting to magic.

CHORUS AS AN OBJECTIVE COMMENTATOR

• The chorus enters and reviews Faustus' career. Audience is informed that Faustus' knowledge makes him famous all through the land.
• Faustus has attained a certain amount of fame in the field of astrology. He has also experienced a measure of enjoyment.
• He is now more concerned with satisfying his immediate pleasure and is no longer interested in being instructed in the good life. By describing Faustus' return to Germany, the chorus also fills in the transition between scenes and prepares us for the next scene, which will take place in Germany.
• He has attained a lot of knowledge and many of his friends seek him out and ask him difficult questions concerning astrology and the universe. Finally the emperor, Carolus the Fifth, asks him to come to his court.

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EPILOGUE

• The chorus makes the final and closing comment on the fall of Faustus.
• They comment that he had tried to go beyond the limitations of humanity and had thus fallen into eternal damnation.
• The chorus admonishes the audience to take note of Faustus' example and not go beyond the boundary of lawful things.
• The chorus expresses the medieval view that Faustus' fall resulted from his pride and ambition.

CRITICAL REVIEW

• Thus the chorus plays multiple roles in the play
• It introduces the main theme of the play
• Introduces the protagonist
• Fills in the gaps of time spent by Doctor Faustus in pursuit of knowledge, curiosity, fame etc.
• Finally it acts as the concluder of the play.
• The famous last lines issues a warning to the tune of a Christian warning.

LAST SPEECH BY THE CHORUS

Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,

And burned is Apollo's laurel-bough,

That sometime grew within this learned man.

Faustus is gone: regard his hellish fall,

Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise,

Only to wonder at unlawful things,

Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits

To practice more than heavenly power permits.