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Act 1, Scene 8
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
After lunch, the group (minus Richard) goes to combat class, which Camilo teaches. Camilo weighs them and notes that Oliver has gained ten pounds of muscle over the summer. The class is reviewing stage slaps and beginning to learn to fake a backhand. Camilo asks James and Oliver to try it together. He tells James to imagine something that would make him want to hit Oliver, and he tells Oliver to imagine something that would make him deserve James hitting him. Oliver watches James, so fascinated by the building anger on his face that he leans into the slap instead of moving away when it comes. James apologizes, but Oliver assures everyone that he’s fine, even though he’s dizzy after the encounter.
Oliver is attentive, loyal, and trusting toward James—and here, his fascination with his face reads a bit like physical attraction, too. His dedication to and interest in James clouds his reason in this scene, resulting in him getting hurt. James, for his part, seems to take the exercise seriously; there’s real anger on his face when he hits Oliver, so he seems to have been following Camilo’s instructions and picturing something that Oliver could do to make him angry. Given how close the two are, it must be something bad—but what exactly that thing is remains unclear. It’s notable, however, that James takes to the exercise of violence fairly easily; his moment of anger suggests both a previously unseen dark side of his character and a potential unspoken frustration with Oliver.
Themes
