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Act 2, Scene 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in If We Were Villains, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fate vs. Free Will
Identity and Disguise
Love and Sexuality
Theatre and Corruption
Summary
Analysis
At the next dress rehearsal the following night, Oliver keeps an eye on James and Richard. But during Richard and Meredith’s scene, in which Calpurnia tries to convince Caesar to stay at home to avoid bad omens, Richard strays from the blocking and handles Meredith too roughly. He throws her onto the stairs, and Meredith interrupts the scene to ask him what he’s doing. Although Gwendolyn tries to stop them, they fight. When Richard grabs Meredith and threatens her, Oliver and James rush onstage, but Camilo separates them first. Oliver feels furious when he sees that Meredith’s elbow is bleeding where it collided with the stairs. When Meredith notices the blood, she leaves the stage in anger.
Again, Richard uses the pretense of the stage action to abuse his role and hurt his friends on purpose. Oliver and Alexander’s observation of the distance between Richard and Meredith takes on new meaning now: it seems possible that she’s physically avoiding him because he’s hurting her, not just because she’s angry at him for Halloween. Oliver again feels protective of Meredith when he sees that she’s hurt, suggesting that his feelings for her are continuing to grow. Like James’s bruises, Meredith’s blood is a physical reminder that Richard has crossed the line.
Themes
Gwendolyn scolds Richard and tells him that if he does something like that again, Oliver will take his part. Richard apologizes to her, but after she walks away, he downplays the incident to Oliver and James by calling Meredith a “drama queen.” Filippa scolds him thoroughly and leaves, followed by Wren and Alexander. James smiles at Richard in “a glimmer of petty triumph” and leaves, too. Richard stares at Oliver and tells him not to start learning his lines. He leaves Oliver alone onstage, feeling useless.
Richard is manipulative and good at disguising his violence. His apology to Gwendolyn and immediate about-face to his friends makes it clear that he’s acting in cold-blooded cruelty rather than heat-of-the-moment anger. In other words, he’s in total control of what he’s doing—and he attempts to make the other students complicit in his treatment of Meredith by insulting her in front of them. In this exchange, the damaged relationship between James and Richard is visible as James uncharacteristically seems to take pleasure in the others’ disapproval of Richard.
Themes
