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Act 5, Scene 3
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
In the FAB, Oliver sees that people are already in line for the performance of King Lear that evening and realizes that he’s lost track of the time. Still, he sprints past them and sneaks into the undercroft. Finding the locker where he’d stashed the bloody fabric, he throws the boat hook inside and locks the door immediately. He runs to the dressing room and apologizes to Alexander and the second-year preparing to go on stage in his place. He rushes into his costume and goes to the wings. He sees James perform Edmund’s soliloquy condemning those who blame villainy on the divine stars and enters on cue for the same scene that the two of them acted out in the library the previous night. Oliver waits too long to leave the stage at the end of the scene, forcing James to look at him.
Oliver understands that James must have killed Richard, and he doesn’t think twice before helping him cover it up. His actions demonstrate his loyalty to James, even after all that’s transpired between them. James’s soliloquy as Edmund expresses the novel’s primary view on fate and free will: that while things may look significant or destined in retrospect, people’s actions are ultimately their own responsibility. The words have new resonance now that readers know that James is a murderer; he seems to be punishing himself for his crimes.
Themes
