The concept of person derives from latin persona, originally referring to the
ritual or dramatic mask. In classical Rome, the category came to include the
juridical person, who – like other dramatis personae – had a particular position
in society. In this article, an analysis of two well known characters in Shakespeare’s
plays are used to rethink the conflation of the dramatic and social
character in any person. By focussing on the idea of the will as an immanent
feature of the modern person, it is shown how he or she is both cough caught up
in a drama beyond control and contributing to its – unforeseen – course. In this
sense the modern person is like Hamlet or Macbeth, whose destinies were partly
a function of a larger unfolding drama, and partly of their own decisions to act
upon and within it.
 
