FREE ESSAY ON ANALYSIS OF THE FLEA BY JOHN DONNE

ANALYSIS OF THE FLEA BY JOHN DONNE

Shai Steeck
English 2
Essay 1
"The Flea"
John Donne
Observe a typical bar; every Saturday night sweat drenched bodies emitting alcohol and
pheromones from every pore, exchange conversation, pleasantries, and yes even sex
(perhaps not directly in view but certainly eluded to). Is this animalistic, barbaric
behavior acceptable? Should sex be taken so lightheartedly? Or do we take it to
seriously; guarding sex like it was the Holy Grail, or the secret to life itself? These
questions may be to deep and pointed for most to approach, yet John Donne in his poem
"The Flea" wades through them like the kiddy pool. In this clever poem Donne uses a flea,
blood, and the murder of the flea as an analogy for the oldest most primal exchange, sex.
Donne, through symbolic images, not only questions the validity of coveting virginity but
also the importance of sex as it pertains to life.
The metaphors in "The Flea" are plentiful, but the symbols repeated throughout the poem
are clear, beginning with the most prevalent, and the flea. This small parasitic creature
is chalk full of symbolic meaning. During the time this poem was written (the
Renaissance) the flea was use in many poems about sex. I derive that in this particular
poem the flea is symbolic of the act of sex from the speaker's remark in the beginning,
"Mark but this flea, and mark in this, how little that which deniest me is" the flea is
small and inconsequential, his lady denies him sex, which the speaker believes is also
petty. The flea is described as a marriage temple and a carrier of life, but in the next
stanza as something insignificant and small. The speaker applies a certain duality to the
flea and therefore to sex. The metaphor develops more as it relates to the other
symbols.
Blood is used more than once as a symbol. The speaker talks of the blood reverently and
equates it to honor. Blood in this poem is symbolic of life and the soul. The speaker
remarks that in the flea his blood and his lady's blood were mixed, therefore during sex
their souls are "mingled" and become one. This is where the flea becomes a marriage
temple. During this part of the poem the he speaks respectfully within the metaphor about
sex, noting that it can be a spiritual and important thing. But this is eventually
revealed to be only a ploy to prove that if the speaker's lady can treat sex so
irreverently after he had made comments about how sacred it was, than sex should not be
dealt with so seriously. After the speaker's lady kills the flea he asks her if she has
"purpled her nail in the blood of innocence". Using Donne's metaphor as a basis for
interpretation the result is that he asks her if they finish the act of sex (kill the
flea) if it will have really diminished her innocence. The speaker is commenting that sex
does not have the power to take away innocence or life. The murder of the flea also adds
to the overall metaphor.
When the speaker and his lady's blood is mixed in the flea the speaker refers to the flea
as a marriage, therefore the exchange of life (blood) during sex forms a marriage between
the partners. The narrator asks his lady not to kill the flea, which is symbolic of the
end of sex, or orgasm. It was popular belief at the time this poem was written, that
every time a man had sex his life was shortened, thus it is reasonable to say that the
speaker is also representing the murder of the flea as his own life being taken by his
lady during the act of sex. The speaker may feel that if he should have to give a piece
of his life to have sex the woman he gives it to should want to accept it willingly and
without requiring the man to woo. Conclusively the speaker states that the flea ha not
taken hardly any thing of importance from either him or his lad and, "just so much honor
when thou yeild'st to me, will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee".
Therefore the act of sex will not diminish either of their lives and his lady will not be
giving up hardly anything by yielding to him sexually. The speaker is trying to reason
with his lady by lessening the importance of sex in the grand scheme of life.
Even today, with every movie and TV commercial screaming sexual connotations, is sex as
important and life affirming as we make it out to be? In my view this poem conveys it's
message loud and clear, but that doesn't mean that I agree with it. This poem has
interesting points on which some aspects I agree with. We take sex to seriously, we covet
the act of breeding as if it were gold, when truthfully it doesn't affect us as much as
we would like to think. Although that is a very valid point it tends to be awfully one
sided and testosterone based. While most would agree that we put to much importance on
sex, it is an important issue that carries with it consequences, as well as physical and
emotional repercussions. Now, this may be more relevant in modern times but sex during
the time this poem was written still held most of the same connotations as today. For
example disease, pregnancy, spiritual repercussions, and countless emotional issues, all
which tend to impact more of the feminine population. In this poem the speaker does not
seem to be very respectful of the female he is pursuing. Of course that is conducive to
the time but it also says something about the validity of the message of the poem. In
synopsis the flea, blood and death of the flea are all used as metaphors for sex; the
exchange of life force (a very important thing) within the act of sex (represented as
something as insignificant as a flea) and then orgasm, which can feel important and
significant for a period of time but is really only as important as the death of a flea.
The speaker in this poem hopes to convince his lady to sleep with him by trivializing sex
and comparing it to something as insignificant as a flea. Meanwhile I say lady, screw the
speaker and the flea you would get more of a commitment from a machine than a guy as
afraid of human contact as this one.