A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare is set in Athens, Greece and in the forest outside Athens in the fifteenth century. The plot focuses on the lives of the characters Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena. The play begins in the court of the Duke of Athens, Theseus where Hermia’s father Egeus complains that Hermia is refusing to marry Demetrius whom he has chosen for her. Hermia and Lysander are in love and want to get married, but according to an unjust Athenian law if Hermia refuses to marry the man chosen by her parents she would be condemned to death or to become a nun which is very unfair and tyrannical. In order to escape this terrible situation Lysander and Hermia decide to run away from Athens and get married and they confide in Helena about their plans for eloping. Helena is still in love with Demetruis to whom she was engaged before Demetrius met Hermia and broke off their engagement. In Act 1 Scene I Helena says,
“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste; Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste. And therefore is Love said to be a child,Because in choice he is so oft beguiled. As waggish boys in game themselves forswear, So the boy Love is perjured everywhere. For ere Demetrius looked on Hermia's eyne, He hailed down oaths that he was only mine; And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt, So he dissolved, and show'rs of oaths did melt.”
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the lovers overcome obstacles and get married with the help of the supernatural presented by the benevolent Fairy King Oberon who takes pity on Helena and his assistant, a fairy named Puck who carries out his orders, although wrongly at first, and causes much confusion - to smear Demetrius’s eyes with a magic love potion that would make him fall in love with Helena again. And Hermia and Lysander are allowed to get married.