In Shakespeare's play, A Mid-Summer Nights Dream, love is one of the main themes. In the play Lysander says "the course of true love never did run smooth." This refers to the problems of the many sets of lover's in this play. Most of the problems in this play start from romance, or romance gone badly, it has two men loving one woman and the other woman left out. A fairy king and queen in the midst of a battle and a mortal king and queen bound to a marriage because of a battle won. .
Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius, and Demetrius loves Hermia, instead of Helena. This is the main problem in the story. Hermia's father wants her to marry Demetirus instead of Lysander for no apparent reason other than to make things difficult. In an attempt for balance in the play the two that are truly in love elope to another city but get lost in the woods, the magical world of the faries, along the way. The woods seem to bring out the true natural instincts of the people while they are in the woods, with it being night time the atmosphere seems uncertain and unstable. .
Helena tells Demetrius of Helena and Lysander's plan to run away in hopes to win his heart, again. She and Demetrius follow them into the woods. While in there they are all bewitched by the fairies and thrown into a triangle that switches the eyes of the men from Hermia to Helena. Thinking it is all a cruel joke Helena runs away. While the fairies sit back and watch all these things happen they have their own battles going on. The fairy king, Oberon, and the queen, Titania, are arguing over an Indian boy Titania rescues after his mother dies. She keeps this boy out of love and genuine care for him, Oberon wants him at the same time, so he makes Titania fall in love with an ass to distract her from the boy, and give him to Oberon. Once he gets what he wants, he puts an antidote onto her eyes to make the balance of the fairy land fall back into place.