In trying to force Hermia's submission to his ideas of love and seemingly sustain his superego, it may be that Egeus is experiencing a conflict in his identity causing his conflict to pour over into other identity conflicts, such as the confused "love square" consisting of Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and "helpless little" Helena. While I would not afford much to faith into Egeuses concepts of love, Theseus and Demetrius seem to conform to his standards of marriage, which is based not on true love, but merely manly materialism and social status. This is shown when Lysander feels he must compete materialistically by saying, "I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he, as well possess'd; my love is more than his." This statement seems to imply that Egeus prefers Demetrius because of his assumed materialistic endowments and his social status and thus, Lysander must compete with the physical, such as possessions and status, but not love. This scene furthers the implication that everyone struggles with the conflict between that they feel and what they see. In the end as nature would have it, true love dominates false pretenses.
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From the very first scene and conversation in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the notion of dreams foreshadows the major underlying concept of the play, the suggestion that it is all merely a dream. Hippolyta and Theseus are conversing about their excitement over their wedding and their wedding night and how difficult it is to "pass the time." Hippolyta encourages them by saying, "Four nights will quickly dream away the time." There's that word "dream." Hippolyta seems to use the word dream here as a medicine, a way of coping with their impatience. Just as it helps the king and queen's impatience, it is also the healing source that brings about the balance of love among the humans. Through the "healing" power of dreams, identity transformations occur, not once, but many times throughout the play, first, with Theseus and Hippolyta, then within the "love square" when all of them "dream away" their confused love for one another.
