Show how Sophocles uses the Chorus to express the thematic effectiveness of Oedipus Rex.

The fact that the Chorus is not endowed with any profound
life altering messages that immediately strike of moral clarity reflects how challenging
Oedipus' plight is in finding resolution.  Sophocles uses the Chorus of Theban Elders to
speak to the challenges in Oedipus.  In one of the clearest displays of Ancient tragedy,
there is little clear in Oedipus' tale.  He does wrong, but what he does is fairly human
in allowing hubris to dictate his actions.  In believing he can outpace his fate,
Oedipus is "only human."  It is here where Sophocles uses the Chorus, who do not
necessarily speak of anything that is outside the action being displayed.  The Chorus
regrets Oedipus' condition and fall from grace in Act IV, and reminds all that the
judgment of the life of a man is a complex issue at the end of the play.  I think that
in not giving the Chorus some profound message to speak about consciousness, Sophocles
might be suggesting that the challenges present in the play are those that extend to the
realm of being human, no more and no less.  The Chorus, like the audience, is torn
between their affinity for a good ruler as Oedipus is and the loyalty towards the Gods. 
In seeing this predicament play itself out, the Chorus is akin to the audience, in that
we can only see ourselves in such a horrible predicament.  We really lack clear judgment
and definitive sides because while we watch Oedipus endure something that no one would
wish on their own enemy, there is a hidden statement that this is something that had we
been placed in that situation would lack the clarity on how to exactly act.  It is here
where the Chorus is situation and where Sophocles places them in trying to increase the
effectiveness of the drama.