ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about The Bride of Messina that seeks to take us another step closer to the ancient tragedy. Whenever there is mention of a 'simple tragedy according to the strictest of Greek forms', one traditionally expects some consideration of the Aristotelian unities. One need only look as far as the story to see that The Bride of Messina is a "play in the style of Oedipus Rex". In medieval Messina, however, Schiller feels he has to motivate the chorus differently. The chorus therefore has a "double character", "one that reacts in a normal human fashion when in a state of calm reflection, and a specific one, when it becomes passionate and turns into a stage character itself". This is how Schiller himself describes his chorus in a letter to Korner. Korner points to the fact that Schiller's treatment of the chorus is closer to that of Aeschylus, because with Aeschylus one can detect more feeling.
