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Act 3, Scene 17
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
Oliver and Alexander enter the Hall, which has been decorated as an ornate ballroom. Everybody is dressed formally and wearing masks. The first scene, a comical fight acted by third-year girls, begins. Oliver as Benvolio breaks it up, but then gets into a fight with Colin as Tybalt. Meredith as Escalus appears, fully dressed as a man, and orders them to make peace and disperse. James enters as Romeo, and Oliver inwardly compares him to Ganymede. As Oliver speaks his lines of greeting, he feels proud to know James better than anyone else. James seems surprised to see Oliver as Benvolio, which puzzles Oliver—he always seems to play his best friend on- and off-stage.
The masks in this scene emphasize the novel’s theme of identity and disguise, embodying the facades that all of the fourth-years are wearing to shield their true selves from one another, from the police, and from themselves. Oliver’s comparison of James to Ganymede alludes to a story in Greek myth, in which an extraordinarily beautiful mortal boy catches the eye of Zeus, who abducts him and makes him his cupbearer. The name evokes male beauty and homosexual love, and Oliver’s use of it suggests that he is attracted to James’s body as well as his soul.
Themes
Oliver and James begin to play out a scene in which Benvolio interrogates Romeo about his romantic interest. When James speaks the line “In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman,” Oliver forgets his line and then speaks one too early: “Be ruled by me; forget to think of her.” The scene proceeds normally from there, and Alexander enters as a catlike Mercutio. He gets physical with both James and Oliver as he continues the scene, pushing and grabbing them as he delivers his wild and mischievous lines. At the end of the exchange, James looks up to the sky and tells his friends that he sees “Some consequence yet hanging in the stars.”
Oliver’s departure from the script betrays his thoughts: at the mere idea of James loving a woman, he’s unhappy. James’s lines as Romeo yet again highlight the theme of fate and free will, as his character interprets a fateful evening in the stars. The recurrence of the stars as a symbol calls back to Oliver and James’s moments together on Halloween and on the night of Richard’s death, suggesting that this is another important night. At the same time, it connects Romeo’s anticipation of love with James and Oliver’s relationship, indicating romance between the two of them.
Themes
The orchestra starts playing, signifying the start of the ball. Couples begin to pair off and dance. Oliver dances for a while, then he recedes to the stairs under the balcony. From a distance, he sees James spot his Juliet: Wren. He approaches her, takes her hand, and speaks Romeo’s flirtatious lines as he kisses her palm. They continue the scene of Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting, and James kisses her twice. Oliver watches and feels hot. Through the pain in his stomach, he realizes for the first time that James is in love with Wren and that he is passionately jealous at the sight of them together.
The script has no regard for Oliver’s feelings, and Wren is written as James’s Juliet while Oliver watches helplessly from the sidelines. Oliver has admitted to a certain possessiveness and love for James before now, but it seems like this night marks the first time he’s realized that it's romantic love, not just platonic devotion. At the same time as he realizes his love, though, it’s entangled with jealousy—the very thing that Richard used to accuse their group of. In the narrative of their group’s “corruption,” Oliver’s jealousy of Wren doesn’t bode well.
Themes
