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Act 3, Scene 13
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
Five days later, Meredith and Oliver go to the Bore’s Head for a drink. It’s crowded, and everyone there whispers and stares at them. As Oliver orders drink, someone glares at him and shakes his head. Oliver and Meredith’s initial conversation is self-conscious and awkward. After Meredith says that she’s tired of being looked at and thought of as Richard’s girlfriend, Oliver asks her why she’s interested in him. Meredith tells him that he’s a good person, and the only one of them who doesn’t constantly pretend to be their typecast. She likes that he doesn’t treat her like the “whore” she’s learned to imitate. Oliver apologizes to her, and they leave the bar. As they go, a girl calls them “shameless.”
Even though Oliver and Meredith aren’t onstage, they’re being observed—and their audience doesn’t seem to like the way they’ve broken out of their well-defined relationships to go on this date. Much like James had on the night before Julius Caesar auditions, Meredith expresses her dissatisfaction with the typecast she’s been relegated to. She’s no longer content to be reduced to a visual object. Her pursuit of Oliver seems to be an effort to break out of that mold.
Themes
