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"THE FLEA."
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Detailed analysis of John Donne's poem of arguments presented by man courting a woman.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Detailed analysis of John Donne's poem of arguments presented by man courting a woman.
Paper Introduction:
John Donne's "The Flea" presents the clever arguments of a man who wants a woman to become his mistress. The poem consists of a dismissal of her scruples in which the speaker rates the entire act -- as well as its moral implications and its consequences -- as having little more importance than the actions and life of a lowly flea. There are, however, layers of irony in this apparent nonsense. The speaker devotes a great deal of ingenuity to the exposition of his argument and the amount of effort he puts into it belies everything he says about the relative unimportance of her objections. In addition, however, the effort he puts into devising this facetious argument is also meant to convey the intensity of his desire for his objective and this, in itself, is supposed to be convincing. And the listening woman's own response is ironic as well. She dismisses his
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There are, however, layers ofirony in this apparent nonsense. The fleahas bitten him first and in order to bite her they must either have drawnvery close or he must have lifted it and placed on her body -- someunclothed portion of her body which, even it is her bare arm, is yetanother advance in intimacy. They seem to be insertedthere as a formality -- a pretense that she, of course, being a properlybrought up woman looks as unfavorably as her parents would on hisproposition. The flea's action is of no consequence and no moralcensure would be connected with its behavior. She dismisses hisnonsense by the very direct, wordless, method of squashing the bloatedflea, but does not take the simplest expedient -- if she truly wished toreject him entirely -- which would be to walk away. London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. In the first stanza the speaker asks the woman toobserve a flea that has bitten both of them and in which, therefore, theirblood is mingled. Chambers. 1-2. In the second stanza he implores her not to destroy the flea for itnow contains three lives -- his, hers, and the flea's. Work CitedDonne, John. Read closely the lines say that eventhough her parents would forbid such intimacy she has allowed it. By thetime the speaker has reached the point where he can discuss the woman'ssurrender of her "maidenhood" in an affair in which, as he makes explicit,marriage is far from his thoughts he has already made considerable progresstoward his goal. Its sucking (a word that is reiteratedfor its intimate, sexual connotations of the joining of bodies) is subtlyequated by the speaker with their own natural impulse to join sexually. The game is still on asthe poem ends. Andthe listening woman's own response is ironic as well. K. "The Flea." Poems of John Donne. But the flea's behavior is also exploited for its naturalness. But the insertion of the words is ironic since, unlike herparents, she has already allowed him to draw close and propose such anidea. The speaker devotes a great deal ofingenuity to the exposition of his argument and the amount of effort heputs into it belies everything he says about the relative unimportance ofher objections. The action of the poem and the basic arguments of the speaker arerelatively simple. The poem consists of a dismissal ofher scruples in which the speaker rates the entire act -- as well as itsmoral implications and its consequences -- as having little more importancethan the actions and life of a lowly flea. Yet they are alone and he is beingpermitted to speak of such things. And he urges her to acknowledge the naturalness of theimpulse which, like the flea's biting, cannot have moral implicationssimply because it is natural. Thebiting of the flea cannot be considered "a sin, nor shame" and it is"guilty" of nothing at all because it is simply following its naturalinstinct when it sucks their blood. Ashe implies, however, the urge is not his alone but one that they,naturally, share. Her natural 'cruelty' and suddenness as she crushed the flea and, ashe says, "Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence" was a response to him andthe double entendre of that line signals an escalation of his language. In the final stanza she has killed the innocent flea who could not beguilty "except in that drop which it suck'd from thee." Yet she behaves asif she has triumphed because, as they can both see, neither she nor thespeaker is any weaker once the flea is dead and she has, therefore,disproved his nonsense. The speaker gets far enough to persuade the woman to enter evenfarther into his game and her crushing of the flea is her playful responseto his arguments. She allows him to speak fairly bluntly,despite the fanciful rhetoric, of engaging in an affair. As a sign of the physical and social intimacy between them the flea'sdesire to bite them is exploited by speaker in more than one way -- hisnonsense arguments being, perhaps, the least important of them. Thus she has given him reason to hope by the fact that she has notobjected to what he is saying and simply left him. But this is not true since both have progressed toward the goal that hehas in mind -- even though the outcome remains uncertain. There is a game-like atmosphere here, in which the fleaargument is a transparent ploy (i.e., she fully understands it as such) andher response to it (crushing the flea) is another ploy. Thesheer sensuality of her cruel response in crushing the flea with her nail,however, seems to excite him to a new level of eloquence once he sees that,first, she is willing to continue the volleying of words and actions, and,second, she is willing to act in a 'natural' way. And thewords "and you" are inserted there ironically. Thus the fleanow represents their joining together and has become their "marriagetemple." No matter how used she may be to killing the speaker (i.e., byrefusing him) the flea now contains her life as well and she should refrainfrom suicide. E. But he turns this around on her and says that shehas merely proved "how false fears be" and that her fears for her own honorare just as unfounded and flimsy as were his fears for their well-being ifshe were to kill the flea. By the poem's end the pair might seem to be exactly where they began. And, in a way, he argues,the flea, which "swells with one blood made of two," does even more than hewould have them do for they would certainly not wish anyone to "swell" upin this way with the product of their combined blood, i.e., becomepregnant. Vol 1. But with the opening lines of the third stanza hesignals the fact that it is also a sign of her deeper involvement in hisgame. She is anunmarried woman whose "parents grudge" (naturally) such intimacy and wouldcertainly forbid such an affair. Ed. And, as the businesswith the flea indicates, they are in very close physical proximity. In elaborating his argument he saysthat "Though parents grudge, and you, we're met, / And cloister'd in theseliving walls of jet." The idea of their blood being mingled inside the"living walls of jet" that are the flea's shell is humorous but the linesalso point up the fact that she has already allowed him a great deal offreedom in approaching and addressing her and the underlying sense of thelines is that he hopes that this is a sign that he will be permitted agreat deal more freedom with her. In addition, however, the effort he puts into devisingthis facetious argument is also meant to convey the intensity of his desirefor his objective and this, in itself, is supposed to be convincing. The reader mustconsider the circumstances of the poem carefully in order to understandthis. Itis even more grandiose than what has gone before but the underlying meaning--referring to his purpling (i.e., reddening) his nail (punning "nail" inthe sense of a carpenter's nail, i.e., penis) with her "blood of innocence"(i.e., the breaking of her hymen) is far more direct (if anything in thepoem can be said to be direct) and cruder than what has preceded it.Previously his talk of "marriage bed" and "marriage temple" as beingequivalent to the flea's body had been fanciful but fairly indirect. In this flea theirblood is joined and in this they are "more than" married. In either case even before he has begun torecite his argument he has already used the flea to decrease the physicaland social distance between them. The first of these lines ends with the words "we're met" and themeeting he refers to is not so much the fanciful blending of their blood inthe flea as his sitting next to her an talking in this fashion. The speaker already enjoys an extraordinary degree of intimacy withthe woman when the poem begins. John Donne's "The Flea" presents the clever arguments of a man whowants a woman to become his mistress.
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