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Act 2, Scene 1
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 a dress rehearsal the following evening, James and Oliver are talking in their room. Oliver notices that James looks a little sick and asks him if he’s okay. James assures him that he’s fine, but Oliver pushes the issue. Finally, James gives in and takes off his shirt to reveal a pattern of bruises along his arms. He admits that Richard is bruising him during the assassination scene of the play. Oliver is furious and frustrated with his inability to help James. He tries to convince him to tell Gwendolyn or Frederick, but James makes him promise not to tell anybody.
James’s bruises are a record of Richard’s violence toward him. In this first appearance, they indicate Richard’s malicious intent. Richard is using the disguise of stage fighting (which Camilo teaches them to perform safely and painlessly) to intentionally maim James, a perversion of how the students been taught to act.
Themes
