Man-Woman Relationship in “The Flea” by John Donne Essay

In his poem, The Flea John Donne describes the relationships between a man and a woman. The first-person narrator, who remains nameless, attempts to seduce his beloved (supposedly a virgin) into sexual intercourse. She is reluctant to yield to him. All of a sudden the main character notices a flea that has probably bitten both of them. He argues that this insect might have already “mingled their blood” and that there is no shame in making love to one another (Donne, unpaged). Later, when the girl kills the flea, the narrator points out that her fears about sex are groundless, and it will not deprive her of honor and dignity. John Donne ends the poem with these lines.

“Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me
Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee” (Donne, unpaged)

Yet, it should be admitted that this summary is mostly based on subjective interpretation. In fact, the audience knows virtually nothing about the gender identity of the characters, because the author uses personal pronouns “I” and ‘you’ which give no clue about gender. Secondly, it is not quite clear whether the speakers feelings toward the woman are deep. The tone of the poem is slightly humorous and it seems that he is more interested in sex rather than life-long relations. In addition, the audience does not know how long they are acquainted with one another. The only thing that we know almost for a fact is that they are in some private place; evidently they are on close terms with each other. However, there is still some barrier between them that prevents them from intimacy.

The writer employs various stylistic devices in order to make the poem more vivid and realistic. First, we need to speak about the symbolism of the flea, which represents different attitudes and opinions about sex. On the one hand, it is the unity of man and woman. The speaker says,

“This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is” (Donne, unpaged)

However, at the same time the image of the flea is intended to show that sex is not the most important part of the relations between people. It is very short-lived and can end in an instant. Apart from that, this metaphor is used to enhance humorous effect of the poem. The narrator chooses a very strange or even comic example to explain the essence of love and prove his argument. In this way he also tries to show how little he is asking for. John Donne creates a very strong image for defloration¹. The phrase “blood of innocence” is both romantic and ironic. The thing is that innocence cannot be reduced only to physiology of a human being. The author employs this image to ridicule common prejudices against sex, which were deep-rooted in sixteenth century England.

The verses give rise to several questions and ideas. For instance, one may ask oneself what is the most significant constituent in love, spirituality, or sex. It appears that John Donne wants the audience to form their conclusion on this topic. Besides, this poem demonstrates how hollow peoples words and promises can be when they try to get what they desire. On the whole, the situation, portrayed by John Donne, is familiar to every man, at least to some degree. Nevertheless, only very few can present it in such humorous and thought-provoking manner.

The author divides the poem into three parts. It is rather difficult to determine why John Donne decided to organize the verses in this way as number three has several meanings in modern culture. It may embody the Holy Trinity and subsequently the church. It should be borne in mind that for a very long time the church regarded sex as a sinful act. The poet tells us that it could be considered as “sin, shame and loss of maidenhead” (Donne, unpaged). Moreover, in the vast majority of cases theologians treated it as a necessity for the continuation of life, though its pleasures were obviously ignored. We should say that number three repeats itself within the poem: “three sins”, “three lives in one flea square” and three is the number of stanzas². This repetition aims to stress the Christian outlook of the author and underline the idea that love, as well as sex, can be sacred and sinful at the same time. Perhaps, this is the main message that John Donne wanted to convey.

Overall, The Flea is one of the brightest works in John Donnes legacy. It is humorous and didactic, comic and thought-provoking, realistic and fantastic. The poet describes a commonplace scenario, but he makes it vivid and appealing to the readers. This poem is full of paradoxes, especially if we are speaking about the interpretation of physical love which may be noble and ignoble at the same time. These are the reasons why The Flea remains popular for more than four centuries.

Works Cited

Donne John. The Flea. “Poems of John Donne”. Web.

Footnotes

1. The loss of virginity
2. Stanza is a forming unit of a poem