An Enlightenment of “The Flea”

By Patricia Chatters

            John Donne’s “The Flea,” is a seduction poem in which the speaker presents a persuasive argument using a flea as a symbol of consummation of the love of him and his love interest.  The speaker’s argument is produced and manipulated from three points in the three stanzas of the poem.  From the first stanza to the last stanza the argument turns full circle back to the argument the speaker begins with.  In this poem the speaker has presented a witty argument to his love through the use of a flea as the metaphor for their relationship. 

            In the first stanza of the poem, it is clear that the speaker is addressing someone with the words, “Mark but this flea” (1).   The idea invoked by this line is that the speaker is asking someone to take notice of what he is about to say.  The use of the word “but” seems to belittle the worthiness of the flea.  The speaker than says, “and mark in this,” (1) which brings the attention from the actual flea to the noting of the inside of the flea.   The speaker then says, “How little that which thou deny’st me is;” (2) gives way to the idea that the speaker is trying to convince and seduce his love interest, through this first argument, that what she is denying him is real no big deal.  

            The speaker has observed the flea’s natural instinct of sucking blood from the two of them and concludes this statement, “It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,” (3) “And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;” (4).  He has suggested that the flea has actually taken their bloods and has mixed them together.  According to contemporary medical theories there was the belief that conception involved the literal mingling of the lover’s blood.  This mixing of blood can then be interpreted as the exchange of bodily fluids or more pacifically as a sexual act commented by the flea with possible pregnancy. 

            This observation of the flea’s mingling of their bloods is turned into the speaker pushing his views of having sex onto his love as, “Thou know’st that this cannot be said / A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead.” (5-6). The speaker is telling his love that she could not possibility think that the act of having sex would be considered any one of those suggestions.  It is known fact, that premarital sex back in the 16^th century society would have been a taboo and most definitely seen as an act of sin, as an act of shame, and as the lost of maidenhead, which is connected with the loss of virginity.  The speaker is trying hard to soften his argument by making the consequence of sex with him less severe and totally excluding the society’s beliefs.     

            The speaker lets his love know that the flea has enjoyed what he wants by saying, “Yet this enjoys before it woo,” (7).  The flea was allowed to enjoy her without wooing her.  It is like the speaker is wondering why the flea can have her and he can not.  The flea has enjoyed and received the prize of her with no effort.  The speaker suggests that the flea is having a great time here saying, “And pampered swells with one blood made of two,” (8).   The flea has had a luxurious fed of their bloods and swelling from the bloods could suggest pregnancy.  The word “swells” can also be thought of as sexual excitement and the swelling that accompanies it.  The speaker follows that line with his protest, as it may be called, saying, “And this, alas, is more than we would do.” (9).   He is showing his dismay of knowing that he can not enjoy the same privilege that the flea has with his love. 

            In the second stanza the flea is used in two separate metaphors for the speaker’s argument.  It seems that his love has made a move towards ending his use of the flea in his argument.  The speaker’s first metaphor for saving the flea is when he says, “Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,” (10) he is using the flea’s life as metaphor for the containment of their lives, so sparing the flea’s life would be also sparing their lives.  The flea holds the blood of both the speaker and his love.  In fact he states, “Where we almost, yea more than, married are.” (11) is suggesting that the mingling of their bloods is the more like the consummation of their marriage. 

            The speaker pushes the argument to the idea and second metaphor that, “This flea is you and I, and this / Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;” (12-13).  By suggesting that the flea is actually he and his love, he is placing the important on the flea to their love.  He goes on to say that the flea represents where they were married and consummated that marriage.   These are his strong metaphors he came up with in order to spare the flea’s life and thus save his argument for convincing her that they should have sex.

            The idea of the social taboo’s is brought up again when we read, “Though parents grudge, and you, we’re met / And cloistered in these living walls of jet.” (14-15). The parents would be representative to society’s belief that premarital sex is a sin.  After the comma he has placed “and you” (14).  The placement of his love in this line, present the idea that his love is just as much a resistance to his advances as the social taboos.   However the “we’re met” (14) puts emphasize on that their bloods are mixed and this blood is enclosed in the black walls of the flea.   The speaker is perhaps presenting the idea that their bloods have mixed without society knowing, so they could have sex without society having to find out.    

            At the end of this stanza it seems that he has not convinced his love to save the flea’s life yet.  The speaker gives one final argument for the flea’s life through these lines, “Though use make you apt to kill me, / Let not to that, self-murder added be, / And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.” (16-18).   The speaker pleads against his love’s nature inclination to kill the flea and throws in the idea that she would be actually not only killing the flea, but also killing him and herself.  He even points out that the act of killing goes against religion.  She would be committing three sins: murder in killing him, suicide in killing herself, and sacrilege in killing the flea “the flea represents the temple and it would be great religious sin to destroy a temple.” 

            The final stanza begins with the speaker asking his love this question, “Cruel and sudden, hast thou since / Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?” (19-20). His love has killed the flea, but the speaker keeps on moving ahead by saying the blood is innocent.  It can be taken as the blood of the two them that was mixed in an intimate relationship within the flea had remained innocence.  It can also be taken as that she had little regard for the innocence flea.   If taken this way, it can be used as she has little regard for innocence, so why safeguard her own innocence.  The speaker can use these either way to strengthen his argument. 

            The speaker moves onto his next question for his love which is, “Wherein could this flea guilty be, / Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?” (21-22). The speaker again emphasizes the innocence of the flea.  The innocent act the flea preformed by mixing their bloods together.  The speaker is holding onto to his idea that the connection of the innocence of blood mingling is the same as the innocence of sex.

            The next lines are in response to the speaker’s love who has happily points out the following observation of hers, which he echoes, “Yet thou triumph’st, and say’st that thou / Find’st not thyself, nor me, the weaker now;” (23-24).  By the speaker repeating her observation of how they were not harmed by the killing of the flea he is leading back to his metaphor of the flea being their actual living bodies.   With her statement he is able to diminish the importance of the flea while complimenting his argument.  The compliment being that they are still no worse for the wear. 

            The speaker’s argument comes to its climax in the final three lines of the poem.  The first is when he says, “’Tis true; then learn how false, fears be; (25). The speaker is cleverly turning things around by agreeing with his love and adding that she basically fears something that does not need to fear.  Earlier in the poem the society taboos were what prevented his love from having sex and now he uses the word “fear” to place the responsibility on his love rather than society.  The speaker’s focus, in this final argument, is to convince his love that nothing bad is going to happen it they have sex.  In order to achieve this goal he says, “Just so much honor, when thou yeild’st to me, / Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.” (26-27). The speaker is telling her that when she gives herself to him there would be no more honor lost then what honor was lost to the flea.   In other word there would be no honor lost, because like in the death of the flea it would make no difference.  The speaker has brought things around full circle to his first argument that what she is denying him is really no big deal.

             John Donne’s “The Flea,” takes us through the speaker’s arguments to convince his love interest to give into his sexual request.  From the first stanza the speaker’s argument is; that what the flea has done is no big deal, so what she denies him is no big deal.  To the second stanza the speaker’s argument is; to save the life of the flea, which would in return preserve their love.  To the third and final stanza, when the flea is killed by his love, the argument goes full circle to what has happen to the flea is not a big deal, so what she denies him is no big deal.  The speaker uses the metaphor of the flea as the means of their relationship with his witty arguments to convince his love to give into his sexual request.  Does the speaker get what he wants?  We never find that out, but what a greatly thought out and extremely clever poem written by John Donne. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beliles, David Buck. Theoretically - Informed Criticism of Donne's Love Poetry - toward a Pluralist Hermeneutics of Faith. Vol. 12. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1999.

Carey, John. The Oxford Authors - John Donne. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Gardner, Helen. John Donne - the Elegies and the Songs and Sonnets. London: Oxford University Press, 1965.

Jokinen, Anniina. March 22, 2004 1996. Available: http://luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/donnebib.htm. February 28, 2005.

Dictionary of National Biography.  London:  Smith, Elder, & Co.,

Online Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2005

Redpath, Theodore.  The Songs and Sonets of John Donne.  London:  University Printing House, 1959.


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