The Flea by John Donne Essay

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.

     Even after the girl kills the flea by “purpling thy naile”, the speaker asks the girl how she could have found the flea guilty besides that he sucked her blood. He then points out that even after killing the flea, neither her nor him has become weaker because of it. So again he manages to use the girls actions to his advantage by saying that by killing the flea and spilling innocent blood of all three of them, she has essentially done the same thing as losing her virginity, and has lost nothing. Because of this, he continues to press on with his argument. Telling her how her fears are unnecessary, and that she would lose just as much honor as when she killed the flea as when she gave herself to him.

be seen by the way he uses words like “Had we” and “we would”. This is

To start off, the first stanza in her song represents a sense of how unavoidable change is and how the confusion of the bond combined with the stress of the blame game can lead to a doomed

The poem then transitions to the post-marriage life of the couple in stanza two. In lines eight through ten, the speaker states that she is too shy around her husband. Not only does she not smile, but also she does not answer her husband when he calls her. This shows that the speaker's life took a great emotional transition, as she is overly shy and feels uncomfortable around him. However, around the middle of the second stanza, the speaker transitions into another stage of

The speaker in "The Flea" is a restless, would-be lover who is trying to convince his beloved to give her virginity to him. Therefore, to convince his lover, the speaker

The second stanza, is the turning point of her whole journey, of coming out of the naïve world

In the third stanza it states that “If she wants to grill anything, it's her husband spitted over a slow fire. This quote makes me feel that she want to kill her husband because he is probably not helping her at home and making her his slave. I believe that this person is tired of cooking and being a slave to her husband. In the end of the poem, it also states “During dinner is not incompetence but war”. This means that this happened for a long time I believe that women all over the world are being mistreated and they should stand up for what they believe in. Therefore women should be treated the same way men are being

The metaphor is further enforced in lines 8 and 9 when Donne illustrates the image of the swollen flea "pampered swells with one blood made of two" (line 8) introducing the image of a baby, and the idea of pregnancy. With the possible allusion of a pregnancy Donne is emphasizing that he is attempting to sleep with the woman. Thus, Donne continues to use the image of a flea to unconventionally simplify lovemaking. The absurdity of the poem is portrayed through the use of a flea to convince a woman into bed, when a flea would typically connote repulsiveness, dependency, and something ugly and simple, which mooches off of others. In the second stanza of the poem, the speaker continues to emphasize his conceit, although it has become clear that the woman wants to remove the flea from her body, and consequentially the relationship with the speaker. "Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare" (line 10), the speaker is now relying on guilt, persuading the woman to spare not only the life of the flea, however he goes as far as mentioning the lives of himself and the woman. Drawing a comparison once again to the act of love, the speaker mentions marriage, portraying that the flea has joined them eternally much like a marriage would. Marriage is a significant motif in the second stanza, which also relates to

A text is essentially a product of its context, as its prevailing values are inherently derived by the author from society. However, the emergence of post-modern theories allows for audience interpretation, thus it must be recognised that meaning in texts can be shaped and reshaped. Significantly, this may occur as connections between texts are explored. These notions are reflected in the compostion of Edson’s W;t and Donne’s poetry as their relationship is established through intertextual references, corresponding values and ideas and the use of language features. Edson particularly portrays key values surrounding the notions of the importance of loved based relationships, and death and resurrection: central themes of Donne’s Holy Sonnets

Stanza 2- The speaker is describing the poor guy and how she loves him more because of the way the poor guy treats her, really nice.

The poem is opened by a country woman discovering a dramatically changed woman that used to work beside

He takes it a step further by stating that in the flea they “yea more than married are” (2.1). It is one thing to note that a flea contains two individuals’ blood, but to say that this union is greater than marriage is very extreme. Yet Donne executes this unlikely comparison with the utmost confidence, creating a surprisingly poignant argument. When the speaker says “though parents grudge,” he acknowledges that the woman’s parents (and society in general) would show great disapproval for such behavior (2.5). However, he replies that they are “cloistered in these walls of jet” (2.6). He describes their blood as secluded within the flea to remind his lady that they are also far away from any condemning parents. When the lady threatens to kill the flea, the speaker shows his opposition when he states “And sacrilege, three sins in killing three” (2.9). Once again, it seems strange to jump to the defense of a bothersome insect, but when we consider the flea as two lovers and the chamber that houses them it becomes more rational.

To this day John Donne is still considered to be one of the greatest love poets from England. He was born to a Elizabeth Heywood and John Donne, some time between January 24th and June 19th in 1572. His mother Elizabeth Heywood was the youngest of her siblings and the grand-niece to the Catholic Martyr Thomas More. His father John Donne was a prosperous London merchant, but his actual father died when Donne was only four and was believed to be a descendant from an ancient family in Wales. The family was Roman Catholic and this was a very anti-catholic period in England and this would greatly affect Donne in many ways throughout his life.

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