The Flea John Donne Analysis

The Flea John Donne AnalysisBorn in 1572, John Donne was an side poet and perhaps virtuoso of the best metaphysical poets of his era. His works argon renowned for their realistic style and include sonnets and love poetry. One of his most known piece of work is The Flea. Historians are yet to determine the exact season this poem was written, entirely as a posthumous publication, it was published in the year 1633. One must remember the time this poem was composed, the manner of people was a really conservative one therefore, apply narcism to woo the girl, and he tries to break the barriers. The theme of the poem is disguised in the form of a simple insect such as the flea re incloseing propensity and seductive desires. A very(prenominal) avid theme of poetic dresser is used in the duration of this poem. This rule is used as an elongate metaphor, in this case the flea itself. It is indeed a very humorous method of extending the metaphor to add life to the poem.The guy is as king the girl present to observe a flea in their presence, and is almost imploring her to think how piddling is what he asks from her. This is one of the best examples used in this work of poetic self-conceit. He has compared the flea and the note facetiousnesshin it to them organism as good as married. The flea has sucked his blood and hers, therefore coming to the conclusion, that, the flea consists of two of their bloods mingled in it. He is very suggestive in implying they are almost more than married. In the senile days, making love amongst two lovers was considered modify their bloods, they would have to be one flesh before they could do the deed. So, when he refers to the break away having their bloods mingled already, he implies there is no understanding for her to say no to him. He draws her attention to the situation that now that their bloods are already mingled and mixed, giving herself to him would not be considered as a shame or a sin or discharge of her vir ginity as they are already one entity. He feels that the flea has joined them in such a manner,And this, alas Is more than we would do.In the next stanza of the poem, as the story progresses, it seems the girl wishes to kill the flea, and the boy stops her by tell O Stay where hes asked her to stop, as he tries to convince her that this flea not precisely contains its own life, but also theirs. Clare Middleton from the English Review has made an fire observation regarding his behavior towards women saying,This vocalizer excels in dazzling his female conquests with his wit and intelligence. In The Flea, his personal credit line that the woman should submit innerly to him twists and turns in answer to her unheard words and unseen actions. He claims initially that the flea represents the tiny incorrupt decision facing her (How little that which thou denyst me is) and then quickly adopts a less flippant tone, suggesting that the flea in fact represents the great sanctity of thei r sexual contract, because were met/and cloistered in these living walls of jet. When the woman confounds him by killing the flea, its insignificance, which is covert in her Cruel and sudden act, is the cue for the final twist of his transmission line Just so much honor, when thou yieldst to me,/Will waste, as this fleas finis took life from thee. From a female point of view, the wittily blasphemous argument is impressive not so much for its details as for its persistence. The phallic imagery of the flea, which pampered, swells with one blood made of two, implies that the amount of intellectual elan vital expended in the pursuit is directly proportionate to the physical efforts that might detect the womans capitulation. It may not be politically correct, but it is highly erotic. (Middleton) erstwhile again, using the idea of conceit, he describes in a very metaphysical manner the connection they have with each other using the flea as a center that is holding their lives within it. He tries to woo her on by saying the flea is like their marriage bed and marriage temple, in which their kinship is sanctified and nothing is wrong with it. He hopes she thinks that due to using that as a metaphor, she feels the purity of the deed he wishes to commit and does not look at it as a sin or bailiwick of shame. He extends the flea from just being the institution of the marriage to it now being their marriage bed or marriage temple.Wisam, in The Explicator published in Washington has expanded on this by stating, Donne fundamentally probes the dominant, male grammatical gender that the text appears to be pushing the woman toward. In fact, the male speaker in the poem assumes the position of the woman seduced rather than that of the invading flea, whose chair provides a medium for his contention. The male speaker declares that he is sucked first (3), and the equivocalness of this in line 5 implies that what cannot be said / A sin, or shame refers to some extant to the speakers experiencing pleasure by that sucking. Mansour, Wisam.The Explicator. v. 65 no1 (Fall 2006) p. 7-9 actually cleverly he plays with words where he says,And cloisterd in these living walls of jet.Jet, is a deep glossy black stone. In this case, he is referring to the color of the flea. He generates strong imagery in this line, by comparing a lifeless black stone with the living walls.She moves to kill the flea, and he aptly implies she would be killing him and additionally herself. He refers to her killing herself as suicide and mentions profanation if she were to do it, as she would be committing 3 sins at one go, winning his life, committing suicide and killing the flea.Donne has used a lot of symbolism in the entirety of the poem. Throughout the poem, hes used the flea as a symbol of their togetherness, and expands on it being their marriage bed. He alludes to the symbolism of the Holy Trinity when he talks about three things in one body. One of the very interesting modes of symbolism he has used is blood, particularly in the break down stanza.Blood symbolizes life and Donne has used it to symbolize erotic passion and phantasmal devotion. In the last stanza, she crushes the fly, not paying any heed or attention to his advances on her. He has already mentioned blood of theirs being intermingled in the body of the flea, representing them being one flesh. He admonishes her and asks her regarding the sin the poor flee had committed other than the fact that the flea just sucked a little blood from them. It is worth mentioning here the role of the female in this poem. Her objections are neer noted, just reacted to, and she makes a very powerful yet non-verbal statement by crushing the flea. Very interestingly the reader can see the conceits in which he first tries to show the flea being greater than the church, the sacred relationship between a man and woman and then slowly demo the church and the relationship being greater than just a guiltles s flea. He has realized that she has not fallen for his arguments therefore he changes maneuver and his argument therein. He carries his conceit through, now giving her no reason not to sleep with him, he argues that killing the flea was an easy thing, as she shows it did not harm them, he claims then yielding to him would have just been as easy and painless as killing the flea.To summarize, this work is a metaphysical play with words, wherein themes such as lust, ghostlike imagery, and playful nature are being used. Donne has used words which allude to spiritual aspects of living in that era which give more than one view on what he is actually trying to say.In conclusion, the poem uses a lot of religious imagery as it helps add a sort of authority to the poem, as Donne has shown and argued that what they were about to do was not only supported by morality and God, but not doing it would be sacrilege too. The method of poetic conceit was used very cleverly to extend the flea to h ave many various meanings to it and add more color and humor to it. Kerins, in another journal talking about The Flea makes an interesting observation, Donne was the first to have the flea bite both him and his mistress, thus making it a symbol not of the lovers desire but of the desired union The Elegies . . . , 174). The flea becomes a union symbol because in its mingling of bloods it symbolizes the mingling of bloods thought to take place during coition (cf. Gardner, 175).