At the start of the play, HERMIA’s father (EGEUS) warned her that if she failed to marry DEMETRIUS, he would either commit her to a Convent or have her put to death.  HERMIA, in love with LYSANDER, is not interested in DEMETRIUS, who follows them both into the woods outside Athens when they decide to elope.  DEMETRIUS is in turn followed by his sometime fiancée HELENA.  During a night of mistaken identities and strange escapades brought on by fairy interference, they awake to see DUKE THESEUS above them in the woods.  In this scene, DEMETRIUS is trying to explain what has happened in the woods, and that he now loves HELENA, to whom he is betrothed.