Dramatis personae (Latin: 'persons of the drama') are the main characters in a dramatic work written in a list.
[not verified in body] In a wider sense, the term can be applied to any situation in which people or characters play a role, or appear to do so—such as a metaphor, a drama, or a court case.
[citation needed] For example, the opening pages of Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air contain a dramatis personae.
'[citation needed] This self can no longer be theorized or based solely on an individual's job or productive function.
[citation needed] The term was used by Karl Marx throughout Das Kapital, where the capitalist and worker are introduced as dramatis personae in human hinders.