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Act 1, Scene 11
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
Halloween arrives, and with it the fourth-years’ unrehearsed staging of scenes from Macbeth. At midnight, Oliver makes his way to the stretch of beach where the scenes will take place. In the forest, he meets James and sees that he’s playing Macbeth. James tells him that he’d hoped Oliver would play Banquo. From the tree line, James and Oliver see the first scene begin: Meredith, Wren, and Filippa emerge from the water as the three witches. James and Oliver enter at their cue to deliver their lines, and they act out Act I, Scene 3 of the play. As James speaks Macbeth’s lines about plotting to kill the king, Oliver thinks about how he looks “forbiddingly” handsome in a way he’d never imagined.
With Oliver playing Banquo, it makes sense for James to play Macbeth—the two characters are best friends, just like James and Oliver. Still, Oliver originally imagined that Richard would be Macbeth and James would play Banquo, since Macbeth (a man who kills to become king) is a darker part than James usually plays—but as Oliver watches James perform, he thinks that Macbeth suits him. Maybe James is more like Macbeth than Oliver thought.
Themes
After the scene ends, Alexander emerges as Hecate and initiates Act III, Scene 5. As Oliver and James watch the scene, James reminds Oliver that they still have to perform Act IV, Scene 1. They find fake blood set aside for them in a shed, and James helps Oliver take off his shirt and pour the blood all over himself. Oliver runs back to the tree line to take his place for the scene. He arrives in time to watch the others performing the beginning of it. Richard joins the scene, playing a disembodied voice with a handful of lines warning Macbeth to beware of Macduff.
After Macbeth and Banquo speak to the witches in the previous scene, Macbeth kills the king, assumes the throne, and in paranoia arranges for Banquo’s assassination (the fourth years skip these scenes for the showcase). Oliver needs to enter for the next scene covered in blood because he appears to a guilty Macbeth as an apparition at a banquet in Act IV, Scene 1. While James and Oliver are preparing for this famous scene, Richard plays out the entirety of his small part—as it turns out, he’s not even onstage. This is why he seemed disturbed at the lunch table earlier—not only is he not playing Macbeth, but he’s playing a bit part. In some ways, he’s even been shuffled into Oliver’s old place.
Themes
The scene continues, and Oliver enters as a bloody apparition of Banquo. James is pale and wide-eyed as he takes in the sight, and some audience members scream. At the end of the scene, Oliver runs back to the tree line, and the showcase is over. The audience applauds wildly, and a party soon begins. Oliver meets up with Filippa and Alexander, and they decide to enter the thick of the party and get drunk. Oliver is swamped by admirers for an hour until Meredith comes up to him. She compliments his shirtless appearance, and he returns the compliment before remembering Richard and changing the subject.
James seems as affected by Oliver’s performance as Oliver was by his. Whether it’s because of Oliver’s bare chest, bloodiness, or acting chops isn’t totally clear. Meredith, for one, seems to find Oliver’s costume attractive. She and the audience members who stay for the party give him much more attention than he’s gotten before. Oliver seems to enjoy it, but Richard has a way of intimidating people even when he isn’t present—not unlike the disembodied voice he just played.
Themes
Oliver asks Meredith where Richard is, but Meredith is dismissive, telling Oliver that Richard is always brooding about something. Oliver sees Richard glaring at him in the distance as Meredith tugs him away. Meredith leads Oliver to James and Wren, just as James is giving her his coat. When Meredith leaves to get drinks, Oliver compliments him on his performance as a villain. He sees Richard again in the distance and feels nervous, but he pushes the feeling down.
Richard’s anger looms over the party and over Oliver. It seems like he might think of Oliver as taking his place, even though he wouldn’t have wanted to play Banquo—after all, Oliver has gotten the attention of the audience and his girlfriend, even if he’s not completely comfortable with it. Oliver doesn’t seem to think much of James giving Wren his coat, but the gesture indicates a certain closeness between them, as if they were dating.
Themes
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Hours later, the students are drunk and having chicken fights in the water. Alexander and Filippa taunt Meredith into going up against them, but she needs a partner. Richard and James both refuse—Oliver notes that James has always seemed repulsed by Meredith, unlike the other men in their class—so she turns to Oliver, who reluctantly agrees. Wren promises to fight the winners with James as her partner. Although Oliver is drunk, he and Meredith win the fight. As promised, Wren and James wade into the water to fight Meredith and Oliver—but as Wren climbs onto James’s shoulders, Richard stands and objects.
Like the night of the Julius Caesar cast list release, Meredith is trying to convince her friends to get into the water with her—and again, even her boyfriend seems uninterested, indicating tension in their relationship. Oliver seems to agree out of a mixture of drunkenness, chivalry, and perhaps attraction to Meredith. When he and Meredith are about to face James and Wren, the picture of the two “couples” is too much for Richard, who sees his girlfriend touching Oliver and his cousin touching James.
Themes
Richard tells them to stop, pointing out that they could get hurt. When Filippa tries to calm him down, he snaps at her. Colin, who’s been refereeing the games, senses conflict and clears the beach of spectators. Meredith criticizes Richard, telling him that he’s just in a bad mood because he didn’t play the lead role in Macbeth. He mocks her back, calling her an “attention whore,” which makes Oliver feel angry and protective. James tries to urge Richard to calm down, but Richard snaps at him for touching Wren. Appearing drunk, he wades into the water.
Richard is the angriest and most out of control he’s been so far. For the first time, he lashes out at Filippa, who’s neutral in the conflict and only trying to calm him down. Richard’s words to Meredith are especially cruel considering the exercise that the fourth-years did with Gwendolyn. Over the course of the scene, Oliver seems to have already grown closer with Meredith—usually mild and nonviolent, Richard’s insults to her awaken aggression inside of him, suggesting the beginnings of a connection between Oliver and Meredith. Richard’s shaming of Meredith’s sexuality and his possessiveness of Wren also imply for the first time that Richard has some misogynistic beliefs—or at the very least, a sense of entitlement.
Themes
Oliver tries to defend James, but Richard turns and threatens him, too. James warns him away from Oliver, but Richard reacts derisively to James’s mention of Oliver’s kindness. As the group yells at him to stop, Richard shoves James twice. James warns him to back off, but Richard shoves him harder. James attacks Richard, but to no avail—Richard is far larger, and he just laughs at James’s efforts. As Oliver rushes forward to try and help, Richard seizes James by the neck and forces him under the water, holding him under the surface. Everyone rushes at Richard, screaming and hitting at him in an effort to make him release James. After a long moment, he does.
Just as Oliver is protective of Meredith, he’s protective of James—and James, who had previously tried to defuse the conflict, threatens Richard to protect Oliver, too. But it becomes clear that he can’t; Richard is stronger than all of the rest of them put together. The sadism he demonstrates in this scene is far beyond the rudeness that he’s shown so far, and it’s such a disproportionate reaction to the events of the past few weeks that it forces the reader to confront the possibility that Richard has always been an inherently violent, unstable person—he’s just now been unmasked.
Themes
Oliver supports James as he coughs up water. Meredith and Wren scream at Richard for almost killing James. Oliver and Colin help James to the beach, where he slumps. The group is shaken. Richard tells them that it was just a game, but James just stares up at him. Furious, Meredith tells Richard to go back to the Castle. The rest of them decide to go to bed. As she leaves, Meredith looks at both James and Oliver apologetically. Oliver lingers behind with James and looks at the sky full of stars. James starts to say something, but he can’t get the words out. Oliver comforts him with a hand on his shoulder. Narrating the story, Oliver notes that that night changed their group forever.
James is utterly defeated. Now he knows for sure that Richard is an unbeatable physical threat, and he has reason to suspect that Richard is going to kill him. After all, he might have died if the others didn’t interfere. Meredith’s apologetic look implies that she knows what’s going to happen to Oliver and James next and thus is not as surprised by Richard’s violence as the rest of the group. It’s now Oliver’s turn to comfort James. When Oliver thinks about the two of them looking at the stars, he links the scene with fate, commenting that their group was irrevocably changed after that night. The end of the act sets the tone for the rest of the tragedy to unfold and places James and Oliver’s relationship squarely at its center.
Themes
