A Midsummer Night's Dream Act I Scene i
Act I Scene i
Theseus, the duke of Athens, Hippolyta, his fiancé, enter with Philostrate and others. Theseus is eager to marry Hippolyta, their marriage is only but four nights away, and yet he finds the waiting troublesome. She reassures him that four days will pass quickly, and they will be married shortly. Theseus asks Philostrate to stir up the Athenian youth so that they may have entertainment, and so Philostrate leaves. Then the couple is soon joined by Egeus, his daughter, Hermia, and two men, Lysander and Demetrius.
Theseus greets Egeus warmly, but Egeus is vexed and has come to the duke with a complaint regarding his daughter. Egeus has selected Demetrius as a match for Hermia but claims that Lysander has hoodwinked his daughter into falling in love with him. Egeus says that Lysander has twisted his daughter so that she is no longer obedient to him. He asks the duke to invoke the Athenian law if his daughter refuses to comply with the match that he, her father, has made for her.
Theseus addresses Hermia and asks her to consider Demetrius, who is a worthy match, but Hermia remains obstinate and inquires about the consequences of not obeying her father. Theseus informs her that such an action would either lead to an execution or a promise of celibacy as she would be forced to become a priestess of the moon goddess, Diana, and so remain a maiden forever. When Hermia continues to remain irresolute in her love for Lysander, Theseus bids that she consider the matter until his marriage to Hippolyta.
Demetrius too asks Hermia to reconsider, and he asks Lysander to yield his love for Hermia. Lysander retorts that Demetrius has Egeus's love and not Hermia's, so he should marry Egeus. He makes his case for being a match to Hermia, for he is just as wealthy as Demetrius and has a similarly noble birth, moreover, he is loved by Hermia. Lysander also reveals that Demetrius had in the past courted Helena, and had later abandoned her while she continued to dote on him even today.
Theseus confesses that he has heard of such an account but had been far too occupied with personal matters to speak to Demetrius about it, he bids both Demetrius and Egeus accompany him as he leaves with Hippolyta. He wishes to discuss with them some details of his wedding, among other things. Hermia and Lysander are left alone, and Lysander attempts to cheer her up. He talks of all the trials that true love has had to endure throughout history, and that Hermia should only remain patient. He proposes a plan to elope with her to a relative that treats him like her only son and since she lives far away from Athens, Athenian law would not apply to them there. They agree to meet the following night in a forest close to the city, where they had once before met.
Helena enters and Hermia hails her warmly. Helena is distraught with Demetrius’s rejection of her and expresses her jealousy of Hermia, who is so adored by Demetrius. Hermia explains that she has done nothing to incite his love, and no matter how she rejects him, he seems to continue wanting her. Helena and Hermia are close friends, and so she reveals to Helena the plan the couple has concocted to elope from Athens. She tells her that they are to meet in the very place where Helena and herself have spent so much time together, and so saying, both Lysander and Hermia leave. Helena remains alone and talks aloud of how Demetrius had wooed her and then lost interest in favor of Hermia. She wants to tell Demetrius that Hermia and Lysander plan to elope just so she can see him and follow him when he goes to the forest in chase of the couple.
Analysis
The genre of the play is made evident by how the characters react to their situations, it is clearest in the interaction between Lysander and Hermia. Were this play a tragedy, the lovers would have expounded on the tragic situation they have encountered and would talk at length about how they feel. In this play, however, the couple is more focused on finding and enacting a solution to their problem. This is an approach that Shakespeare commonly adopted in writing other comedy plays as well.
From the very onset of the play, the audience is exposed to the theme of an out-of-balance love, where there ought to be two couples there is but one. Hermia is loved by both Lysander and Demetrius while Helena loves but is not loved in return, and this imbalance continues to shift in other parts of the play, until it is finally resolved at the end of the play.
Shakespeare also makes use of foreshadowing in this scene, first, when Theseus discloses that he and Hippolyta had fallen in love after a conflict in which he had wounded her, this foreshadows the conflict between Oberon and Titania in the later acts. Another instance of foreshadowing can also be detected in Lysander's conversation with Hermia, as he tells her that the path of true love is never smooth. This indicates the troubles they are to encounter while they attempt to elope from Athens.
