In the beginning of the play the audience is assuming Demetrious and Hermia are going to get married and Lysander and Helena are there to complicate the process. However as the play goes on the audience will realize that is not going to happen. Lysander plans to run away with Hermia into the forest. Hermia tells her friend Helena of her plan. Helena because of her obsession with Demetrious snitches on Hermia and tells Demetrious of their plans. Demetrious is outraged and goes into the woods to find his lover Hermia. He is followed by Helena. This is where the conflict between Demetrious and Helena becomes humorous. Helena follows Demetrius trying to convince him of her intense love for him. The way Demetrius responds is humorous. The specific scene where Demetrious tells Helena he is going to abandon her in the forest. "I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts" (2.1, 234-5) Demetrious is so annoyed with Helena, he threatens to leave her in the woods with the wild animals. This is funny to the audience because of the cruelty Demetrious uses towards Helena. It is also funny because of how desperate it makes Helena look. If a man is prepared to leave you in the middle of the forest at nighttime you must really be bothering him. The conflict between Demetrious and Helena is very comedic. What makes it so funny is Demetrius's cruelty and Helena appearing very desperate.
Oberon, the king of the fairies and Titania, the queen of the fairies have a great and humorous quarrel because of the Indians boy. Both Oberon and Titania believe they deserve the boy but Titania has possession of the boy, for now. Oberon is angered by this and calls on his "puck", Robin, to obtain a special flower. Oberon places this flower on Titania's eye while she is sleeping so that when she awakes she will fall in love with the first thing she sees. She awakens later in the play and the first thing she sees is Bottom, who has been turned into an ass by Robin.