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In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, what is the matter that Egeus brings up to the Duke?

Egeus comes before the duke because he wants his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius, but she wants to marry Lysander. 


In Athens, Theseus is in charge.  When Egeus’s daughter is giving him trouble because she wants to choose her own husband, he hauls her before the duke in order to reinforce to her that she has no say in the matter.  As far as he is concerned, she will marry Demetrius because she has been told to marry Demetrius. 



EGEUS


Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her. (Act 1, Scene 1)



Theseus completely takes Egeus’s side!  It was common for fathers to make decisions for their daughters about who they would marry.  The daughters were supposed to accept it.  According to Thesus, it is also Athenian law and tradition. 



THESEUS


What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god;
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman. (Act 1, Scene 1)



 Hermia refuses to accept this situation.  She decides to run off with Lysander.  Some trouble ensues when she tells Helena what she is doing, because Helena is jealous.  She likes Demetrius.  This is how Helena and Demetrius end up following Lysander and Hermia through the woods.


By the end of the play, Theseus allows the lovers to be together.  He is getting married too, to Hippolyta.  He is happy, and wants everyone else to have a chance to be happy as well.  Egeus just has to go along with it.

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