DEMETRIUS   Relent, sweet Hermia; and Lysander, yield

Thy crazed title to my certain right.

LYSANDER     You have her father’s love, Demetrius.

Let me have Hermia’s: do you marry him.

EGEUS Scornful Lysander, true, he hath my love,

And what is mine, my love shall render him;

And she is mine, and all my right of her

I do estate unto Demetrius.  (1.1.91-98)

Demetrius speaks, and really, he’d do better to keep his mouth shut: relent, sweet Hermia; and Lysander, yield thy crazy title to my certain right. Not helping, making it all about him—sweet Hermia is perfunctory; crazy title introduces the conceit of paperwork, legal ownership—and the ENTITLEMENT. Lysander’s diagnosis is correct, and gets a laugh—you have her father’s love, Demetrius. Let me have Hermia’s: do you marry him—but Lysander’s speaking the same language, expressing the same dynamic, that this is all about relationships between men, competing less over a woman than over getting what they want, being the winner, defeating another man. (Homosociality 101.) Hermia is reduced to collateral damage, certainly for Demetrius and Egeus, and at least a bit for Lysander too. Egeus sounds more Capulet-like here, and he also switches in his idiom to something more obviously about capital, ownership, and status, as well as point-scoring: scornful Lysander (making him sound like a mocking boy, which he is), true, he hath my love—yes, he’s my favourite, well spotted—and what is mine, my love shall render him. Because he’s my favourite, I can reward him however I choose, by giving him anything I possess. And she is mine, and all my right of her I do estate unto Demetrius. It’s all perfectly simple, straightforwardly transactional, the transfer of property from one owner to another, on preferential terms. The property in question doesn’t have a say, and neither do you. Back off!

(In some productions Hippolyta is clearly the spoils of war, a trophy, a trafficked woman. In some ways, so is Hermia.)