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Summary
Act 3, Scenes 11–18
Act 3, Scene 11
Back at a Dellecher, Dean Holinshed tells Oliver the financial aid plan, which includes cleaning the Castle. Oliver agrees without hesitation. While cleaning, he overhears Colborne and a colleague, Ned Walton, and learn they are still investigating Richard’s death. Colborne says he doesn’t trust the fourth years because they’re actors, trained to lie. After they leave, Oliver imagines a conversation with Richard, who haunts him.
Act 3, Scene 12
Wren and Meredith aren’t back for the first day of class. For his midterm speech, Oliver is given a speech from King John. Wren returns and Meredith emerges, and they all embrace, momentarily happy. Meredith and Oliver speak awkwardly, and it is clear that she feels slighted for James. After she goes to bed alone, Oliver heads to the dock where he meets Alexander. He tells him about the conversation he overheard, and that Colborne knows they lied. They wonder what Richard did that night, and Alexander admits he was with Colin. Oliver observes that there was no blood on the dock, only in the water, which is odd if Richard hit his head.
Act 3, Scene 13
Instructions and invitations for the Christmas masque arrive, and the group is relieved that it momentarily takes the spotlight off them. Meredith goes to get their Romeo and Juliet assignments, and Oliver follows her to apologize and suggest they go on a date. He will play Benvolio, Romeo’s cousin, in the masque performance.
Act 3, Scene 14
Meredith and Oliver go to the Bore’s Head for their date, where the group’s usual table is occupied by other students. They tensely discuss the state of their “relationship”. Oliver says he doesn’t want to feel like Richard’s understudy. He can’t understand what Meredith sees in him, and she replies that he is good, more than he realizes, and never treats her like a whore. Their relationship is in limbo. As they leave, a nearby student mutters that they are shameless.
Act 3, Scene 15
Oliver’s speech is a success. Wren follows him and gives a speech from Richard III. She delivers this expression of a woman’s pain powerfully, collapsing at the end.
Act 3, Scene 16
At the Castle, Oliver announces that Wren collapsed. James hurries to be with her. Alexander and Meredith arrive, and they all wait for news. James returns hours later without having seen Wren. He reports that the police had been there. Alexander reiterates that they should do nothing, and they tensely debate the difference between killing someone and letting them die.
Act 3, Scene 17
Oliver dresses for the masque. He finds Alexander in the Castle, snorting cocaine. Oliver chastises him for it, saying it puts them all in danger. As they continue to argue, Oliver points out that Alexander isn’t acting like himself.
Act 3, Scene 18
The ballroom is stunning for the masque. The fourth year acting students excepted, everyone is dressed in white. Some of the casting surprises Oliver. Meredith is the prince, but there is no shock to James’s appearance as Romeo. As Mercutio, Alexander is sensual and savage. The lines from Romeo and Juliet echo closely the experiences the group has had, and Oliver finds it hard to concentrate. Wren appears as Juliet and, when James kisses her passionately, Oliver is overcome with jealousy.
Analysis
Following the group’s decision in Act 3, Scene 1, grief and remorse influence everything the characters do but the final scenes of the act focus more on love. Now that Richard is gone, the remaining members of the group are freed to pursue their desires without fear. Meredith and Oliver are able to explore their feelings for one another, as are James and Wren. But the third pairing of Oliver and James also emerges clearly for the first time, and it interrupts the other relationships. James arrives unexpectedly at Oliver’s house in Ohio and, although the friends have shared a room at Dellecher for three and a half years, hints of sexual tension are evident as they discuss sleeping together in Oliver’s bed. Oliver’s sisters, who see James there, play the role of the outside observer in perceiving that there is more to this relationship than just friendship. James’s arrival prevents Oliver from going to New York to visit Meredith, which she experiences as an indication of his preferences. She might seem to be overreacting, although Oliver’s repeated preference of James will reveal she is not.
The choice of Romeo and Juliet for the Christmas masque further develops the section’s emphasis on romantic love. A masque is a form of court entertainment, bringing together drama, song, dance, and music. Often performed on festive occasions, like Christmas, masques traditionally presented simple dramas, which is why the students only perform some of the scenes from Shakespeare’s play. As with their outdoor performance of scenes from Macbeth, the group is instructed not to discuss their assignments with their peers. Oliver is given the role of Benvolio, Romeo’s cousin who is unable to broker peace between the play’s warring families, and James plays Romeo, wooing a fragile Wren as Juliet. The act ends as James and Wren perform 1.5 from Romeo and Juliet, the first interchange between the lovers, and Oliver recognizes he is jealous over James. He also asserts that James loves Wren, although forgets that a full half of what he perceives as love may well be the roles they play. Oliver’s revelation is juxtaposed against the uncertainty created by the masks the students all wear for the event.
Oliver’s choice of reading, Réné Girard’s A Theater of Envy (1991), offers a subtle commentary on the section’s exploration of desire. A study of Shakespeare’s works, A Theater of Envy argues that people desire what others have or want. This theory of desire creates frustrating and confrontational conditions, because it sets up conflicts as multiple people compete for the same desired individual or outcome. When Oliver discovers he loves James at the moment when he sees James kissing Wren, Rio demonstrates how this theory might work. Girard’s discussion of envy also provides a useful way to understand James’s repeated snide comments to Oliver warning him about becoming involved with Meredith. Because it also includes several key chapters on Julius Caesar, in which the critic stresses that the assassination of Caesar creates chaos, not peace, A Theater of Envy offers keys that are useful to a fuller appreciation of If We Were Villains.
