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Act 4, Scene 7
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
On a Sunday evening, the fourth-years are practicing for their midterm exams. They’ve been grouped into pairs for recitations: James and Filippa, Wren and Meredith, and Oliver and Alexander. Oliver is waiting for Alexander to arrive so that they can rehearse. Someone finally shows up, but it’s Colin—and he, too, is wondering where Alexander is. Seeing that Alexander isn’t with the others, Colin goes to his room to check on him and comes running back, pale. They find Alexander splayed out on the floor of his room next to a pile of pill bottles. Oliver calls an ambulance and, desperately wondering why Alexander overdosed, becomes overwhelmed. He runs into the forest to scream.
It’s unclear what the triggering event might have been, but Alexander seems to have reached his limit of stress. Like James and Wren, he seems to break down and self-destruct as his identity fractures. Drug use is something that’s been part of Alexander’s character from the start, but it was only after Richard’s death that it started to become so severe and dangerous—yet another example of his corruptive influence, even after his death.
Themes
