Comparing Lust In 'The Flea And' To His Coy Mistress

As a base of human desire and need, power has always been one of the number one desire of mankind since the dawn of time. To place yourself above others, or gain control over your followers or a situation brings safety and comfort to a leader. A well written example of this concept lies within the twisted world created by William Golding in his, “Lord of the Flies”. Throughout the story, Jack seeks power above all else, and stops for nothing in this lustful quest of dominance. We can get a glimpse of Jack’s desires through his iron grip within his choirboys, how he clashes with Ralph, and how Jack’s actions bring about a deeper symbolism underlying within the story.

On the surface, John Donne’s poem “The Flea” dramatizes the conflict between two people on the issue of premarital sex, however, under the surface, the poem uses religious imagery to seduce the woman into having sex. The speaker in this poem is a man, who is strategically trying to convince a woman to have premarital sex with him through the conceit based on a flea, however, the coy lady has thus far yielded to his lustful desires. The speaker’s argument has the form of logic, which contradicts to its outrageous content.

‘To His Coy Mistress’ was written by Andrew Marvell (1621-1678). The poem is a metaphysical poem, which was mostly used in the seventeenth century and was classed as a highly intellectual type of poetry and mainly expressed the complexities of love and life; just as this poem is. In brief the poem is about seizing every opportunity in life and not caring about the past or future. In other words ‘seize the day’. The poem also explores the nature of seduction.

     In the poem “The Flea” by John Donne, the speaker uses clever sexual innuendo and metaphors in an attempt to manipulate a certain girl into losing her virginity to him. The poem begins with the speaker explaining that a flea has bit both him and her, and now both of

Fairies, mortals, magic, love, and hate all intertwine to make A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare a very enchanting tale, that takes the reader on a truly dream-like adventure. The action takes place in Athens, Greece in ancient times, but has the atmosphere of a land of fantasy and illusion which could be anywhere. The mischievousness and the emotions exhibited by characters in the play, along with their attempts to double-cross destiny, not only make the tale entertaining, but also help solidify one of the play’s major themes; that true love and it’s cleverly disguised counterparts can drive beings to do seemingly irrational things.

A major focus point of Wit has to do with pride, and the conversion that Vivian undergoes at the end. Likewise, pride is also prominent in Donne’s writings. He emphatically views it as evil and the root of human sin. He believes it to be so deeply rooted that only God’s intervention can dig it out, so to speak. Donne would presume that Vivian’s suffering during her ovarian cancer is a means to a correction, and ultimately, salvation. In “Batter My Heart,” one of Donne’s sonnets that can be

John Donne’s poems are similar in their content. They usually point out at same topics like love, lust, sex and religion; only they are dissimilar in the feelings they express. These subjects reflect the different stages of his life: the lust of his youth, the love of his married middle age, and the piety of the latter part of his life. His poem,’ The Flea’ represents the restless feeling of lust during his youthful days but it comes together with a true respect for women through the metaphysical conceit of the flea as a church in the rhythm of the sexual act.

He uses the flea as an excuse for marriage and that they are now permitted to have sex. Out of desperation Donne shifts to a more religiously point of view by saying, “And sacrilege, three sinnes in killing three.” (Line 18) This means that if the woman kills the flea, she is killing the flea, him, herself, and God. However, the women squashes the flea along with his argument and Donne is left with one final go at convincing the woman. The final stanza of the poem expresses his sheer desperation to have sex with the woman as he deviates to using a lenient approach. He blames her not for killing the flea, but says that her act did not damage her honour in any way, and that she should still “yeeld’st to mee” (Line 26), or should still sleep with him. The content of The Flea demonstrates the exact sexist attitude that John Donne possessed when he wrote his early love poems. Likewise, the same desire for physical pleasure can be seen in the poem The Sunne Rising. This poem encompasses Donne’s ignorance of his surroundings and his obsession for sexual pleasure. Throughout the poem he attacks and challenges the sun with contempt, and does so by personifying it. He is obviously disturbed and troubled by the “unruly Sunne” (Line 1) and tells

Written during the 17th century, John Donne utilizes an unconventional genre in his poem, demeaning and objectifying the female sex. A common motif in poems of the Renaissance, Donne uses a flea as a metaphorical comparison to sexual intercourse and the eternal bind between man and woman. Illustrated throughout the poem, Donne

Why does Charles Foster Kane force Susan Alexander to become an Opera Singer? Why is it so important to him? Kane’s friend Leland states that Kane always has something to prove it is also evident that throughout the movie Kane wants to be loved by the public; when Jim Gettys made it possible for the press to make public that Kane was having an affair the press called the mistress a “singer” as opposed to singer. Kane set out to make his lover Susan into an opera singer because this is to him the only way to recuperate from the scandal and to justify his relationship with Susan. Kane goes as far as to build a theater for Susan to perform in, Susan protested many times due to the bad reviews she was receiving, but Kane was hungry for public attention; Kane put his wife through various lessons and shows to make the public recognize his wife as a singer. We can also see that Kane might also enjoy his wife’s performances, as it is shown that often times he is left as the only person applauding Susan’s performances. The only way Kane was convinced to end Susan’s career was through her suicide attempt but even then he tried to convince her that she needs to fight for the approval of the people, which of course Susan declined.

In the final stanza the woman kills the flea. Unsurprisingly, the very dramatic Donne labels the death as “cruel and sudden” (3.1). He goes on to say that she has “purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence” (3.2). What he means by this is that the flea has done nothing more than suck her blood, yet she has ended its life. Since the mingling of blood is representative of sex, it implies that the act of sex is

He goes on to suggest that, when she has killed the flea that holds blood, which in this case is considered as ?life?, from both him and her, that the blood lost had not weakened them (?Find?st not thyself, nor me the weaker now?) and she had not lost any honour. Therefore, with these points considered, the blood she would lose to him would not make her weaker and she would not lose any honour, ?Just so much honour, when thou yield?st to me/ Will waste, as this flea?s death took life from thee?. To some extent, both poets express a way in which they will consummate or have consummated their mistress. Marvell suggests that they should ?roll all their strength and all/ Their sweetness into one ball? and ?tear? their pleasures ?with rough strife/ Through the iron gates of life.? Whereas Marvell explains the consummation as aggressive, sensual and romantic, Donne uses the flea, a very insignificant, unromantic creature, to imply sexual intercourse, ?and in this flee, our two bloods mingled be.?

In ‘To His Coy Mistress’ the speaker carefully constructs a subtle and logical argument as to why his addressee should sexually unite with him. The speaker attempts this proposition through finesse in manipulating reason, form and imagery. The reasoning employed would be familiar to a reader educated in Renaissance England, as it is reminiscent of classical philosophical logic, entailing a statement, a counter-statement and a resolution. In line with this method Marvell’s speaker codes his argument in classical imagery. To understand this argument I will be approaching the poem in three clearly defined sections, which are denoted in the poem with indented lines.

Chaucer breaks the topic of sex into two basic parts: carnality and romanticism. Although carnal love is a controversial topic, Chaucer dives into the subject by creating characters with ferocious appetites for sex and the means to accommodate their desires. Whereas, to address romanticism, he relies heavily on

In the second stanza, Donne goes on to make the point that the flea is