Egeus is Hermia’s grumpy, conservative, and strict father. He is upset that Hermia isn’t doing what he wants her to do – dump the love of her life for a guy that he likes, who is actually kind of a dropkick. This is a ridiculous thing to demand a daughter die for, because she can’t help who she falls in love with and why, let alone make herself fall in love with someone else. Love is a matter of the heart, not one of rationality (which is a key theme of the play!) so to a modern audience, Egeus seems crazy. To Shakespeare’s audience, he would have made a bit more sense, as they were familiar with the gender constructs which emboldened him to make such demands, but Shakespeare’s choice to bestow Egeus with incredibly exaggerated and ridiculous lines indicates that even to his contemporary audience, he serves as a caricature.
