Theseus

Theseus is the Duke of Ancient Athens in the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream written by William Shakespeare. He plans to marry Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons, whom he defeated in battle. Therefore, Theseus is revealed to be a warrior, as well as a strategist. 

Several things suggest that the wedding between Theseus and Hippolyta is a political alliance. For instance, Theseus compares his waiting for the wedding to the waiting of a son having to wait for a relative to die before he can inherit:

Oh, methinks how slow

This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires,

Like to a stepdame or a dowager

Long withering out a young man’s revenue. (1.1.3-6).

The comparison suggests that there are commercial and political interests in the alliance that Theseus plans to make with Hippolyta. Also, in Act 5, Theseus speaks dismissively of lovers, comparing them to madmen when it comes to their rich imaginatio...