The Chorus Leader: the Meta-Trickster

I'm focusing on the speech of the Chorus-Leader where he addresses the spectators of the play directly. In this speech, the leader conflates a series of dichotomies, as tricksters are wont to do, and also creates dichotomies that were not apparent before.

• Firstly, the difference between playwright and play is collapsed. The Chorus Leader talks in the first person about producing the play. Though he does not discuss literally writing the play, his words indicates an awareness of the constructs of the competitions, the staging, etc., and a choice to be apart of the production. Though this reflects some theatrical conventions of the time, I still think it is important to note.
• Within the audience there are those who are worthwhile to produce plays for, supposedly those who supported another play by Aristophanes. Here, the Chorus Leader divides the audience not by class, gender, citizen status or intelligence, but on their appreciation of his plays.
• Then, the Chorus Leader notes the difference between his play and others that make his play stand out. This includes the lack of cheap gags, or false drama. But also, the Chorus Leaders seeks "newness" and originality.
• A final conflation is that between the stage and world and once again with the Chorus Leader and Aristophanes. With references to singular plays and playwrights, the speech moves away from defending what is being performed concurrently with the speech and instead refers to other plays, which expands the reaches of his speech beyond the singular event.

With the switch in subject of the Chorus Leader's speech from the play he is in, to the politics of the age, specifically Cleon's power and the new calendar, he switches positions of authority and knowledge and effectively tricks the audience. With the conflation of the dichotomy between play and real world, the Chorus Leader can transition from condemning the audience within the theater, to condemning plays that were once performed in a theater, to condemning politics that have nothing to do with theater. He has performed an argument from the inferior position and effectively tricked his audience as Strepsiades hopes to do.

The Chorus Leader appears again when the Better Argument and the Worse Argument are arguing. He again suggests that the audience get to here both arguments that these associates represent. This leads to the Better Argument looking out at the audience and realizing that so many of the leading Athenians fall into the pleasure seekers category of the Worse Argument. Here again, the Chorus Leader, though indirectly, indicts the audience, who probably pride themselves on their rationality (The Better Argument).