A Midsummer Night's Dream  

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Well, this play all starts in Athens. A wedding is to take place for Duke Theseus and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. For this glorious occasion, a group of friends decide that they are going to put on the play Prams and Thisbe. The friends names are: Nick Bottom, Peter Quince, Francis Flute, and Snug the Joiner. To practice, they're  going to meet at the Duke's Oak. Well, they weren't the only ones meeting at the Duke's Oak. Some other young ones were planning on a meeting of their own....  Egeus, Hermia's father, wants her to marry Demetrius. Hermia does not want to marry Demetrius, she wants to marry Lysander. Lysander and Hermia are in love.  Well, the law in Athens is that your father can pick who he wants you to marry. If the young lady refuses, her father can go to Duke Theseus, and have her be executed. Just for you guys out there, executed means put to death. In other words, Hermia doesn't really have any other choice than to marry Demetrius.  Well, Hermia has a friend named Helena. I bet you didn't see this one coming, but Helena is in love with Demetrius. Confusing, I know. Let's try to make it easier:

Hermia & Demetrius are getting married

Helena & Lysander are getting married 

BUT

Lysander & Hermia are in love

Helena loves Demetrius, but not the other way around

Is it a little more easy to understand? Good. Back to the story. Since these young folks weren't happy, they were going to elope. Now, you're probably wondering what it means to elope. It means to go away secretly  with the intention of marrying another person you ran away with. Hermia was going to meet Lysander in the Duke's Oak to go on with their escape. If all goes well, their flight should be successful. Meanwhile, Peter Quince and his friends were going to practice their play in the Duke's Oak. Now that place sounds familiar. Where have we heard of it before??? Oh yes! That's the same place where Lysander and Hermia are meeting. You would think that there would be more places to meet in all of Athens. Oh well. This is where the story gets interesting.

 Before any human arrived at the forest, was already alive with fairies and other strange creatures. One of these fairies was a mischief-loving pixie  named Puck. Although Puck liked causing trouble, he always listened to Oberon. Oberon was the king of all fairies. He loved his wife Titania, but the two of them were locked in bitter quarrel because of a human child that Titania saved from its dead mother. Titania wants to keep him just for love, but Oberon wants him to become a slave. Whenever they saw each other, they did nothing but argue. After another dreadful fight, Oberon had an idea to get back at his wife. He ordered Puck to find and bring back a flower called "Love in Idleness". This flower when it was laid upon sleeping eyelids, it made that person fall in love with the first creature they laid eyes on when they awoke. Puck immediately fell in love with the idea and sped off to find the flower. Oberon was sure that this trick would win him the child. Suddenly, Oberon heard a man and woman approaching, arguing as they came. Oberon hid, but stayed to listen. The two people were Demetrius and Helena. Demetrius was trying to find his bride to be  Hermia. Helena had another idea. She was trying to persuade Demetrius to love her and not her long time friend, but Demetrius wasn't listening. He continued with his search. After their leave, Puck returned with the flower. All the while, Oberon, as usual, was cooking up another plan. This time he ordered Puck to search the forest until he found a weeping maid and the mans who despises her. He said that the fairy would recognize him by the clothing he wore of an Athenian noble. He was to squeeze the juice from the flower into his eyes while he was asleep. While Puck was doing this, Oberon would charm his wife. This is the part where things begin to go terribly wrong.

Oberon had done his deed and was very proud of himself. He couldn't wait until he saw which creature Titania fell in love with In the meantime, Puck is having trouble finding the lovers. He is joyous when he comes across two sleeping Athenians and one is a man. Here's the problem, two sleeping people are Hermia and Lysander, not Helena and Demetrius. Puck doesn't know this, and he drops some juice onto the slumbering eyelids of Lysander. If  Hermia was the first person that Lysander laid eyes upon, all would be well, but Helena too had lost her way and stumbled into the clearing. When she found Lysander flat on the ground, she feared that he was wounded or sick. She cried and shook him to make him awake. Lysander opened his eyes and saw Helena, and he was at once overthrown by the flower's magic. Lysander tried to tell Helena how much he loved her, but she thought that he was just playing a cruel joke on her. She ran off with Lysander at her heels. This left Helena alone and asleep in the woods.