How might a consideration of the conditions of Greek theatrical performance impact our understanding of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex?

Question

In a minimum of 100 words.

Answer 1

Oedipus Rex includes a Greek Chorus in order to communicate the preliminary situation to the audience during the production. The only way the audience gets most information about the intricate thoughts of the characters is through the Chorus itself - which serves as what we would not consider a modern day narrator. They are "characters" within the story as they interact with Oedipus himself, but they also have asides in which they address the audience directly with the complexities of the situation we are in without the characters within the story being akin to the details.

Without the Greek theatre aspect of the story, we would lose our tragic hero protagonist's actions (better than the average man, can't avoid fate, is ultimately shunned or exiled from what they once knew, etc). Oedipus' actions happen because that is whar a Greek hero is SUPPOSED to do. If this story were written in a different era, it's possible that Oedipus would have responded differently to the situation at hand.