The Lord

Character Analysis

You remember him, right? He's the jerk in the Induction scenes at the beginning of the play – he stumbles across a passed out Christopher Sly and decides to teach the drunken beggar a "lesson." When the Lord gives orders to have Sly dressed up like a nobleman and duped into believing that he's been sleeping for the past fifteen years, he acts a lot like a theater director. His interest in role playing and amateur directing reminds us of another guy who likes to act and write plays: Shakespeare. Is Big Willy having second thoughts about his career in the theater? Nah. He's just having a little fun with the audience while he points out that what passes for "entertainment" can be sort of sick and twisted.