John Donne utilized a strategic code of language to present the idea of a man trying to convince a woman into a sexual relationship. Donne compares the inner relationship that subsists between the parasite and the host to the relationship between the persona and the woman. He observes that eventually there is a feeling that an extension of the same is likely to cause no harm to either of them.
Donne begins his trail by a metaphor where he compares the woman to the flea. The persona uses this strategy to articulate the prime concept of his script work. He depicts the relationship is alive between the parasite, and the hosts from which it sucks blood. This is the relationship motivates the persona because he believes that a relationship exists between them like in the case of the flea (Schulze 149). The flea is portrayed to be a parasite with a lot of esteem for the life of the host. At the point of authorship of the poem, sex was taken as an activity that got the bloods of the people mixing. Donne puts this concept in the trail of love by insisting that the flea had two bloods mixed in it with yet it is not harmed. In the undisputed comparison, the persona insists that there was no harm of them having sexual intercourse because their bloods were bound to mix and mixing of their bloods could be harmless. This is the position of conviction that the persona had glittering in his mind at the point of authorship (Brackett 28).
The spiritual metaphor in the poem is the most pronounced. The woman is believes that having a sexual contact with the persona was in a way going to lead her to sin and, that losing her virginity was the most embarrassing thing. However, Donne presents a case of the flea that had already bitten the persona and the woman. Through this metaphoric concept, Donna argues that the two were already sexually connected by the fact that the flea had aide their bloods in mixing and that having sex was not in any way a disgrace (Schulze 34). The mixing of the blood from the persona, the woman and the flea represents the holy trinity. This meant their sexual relationship had the blessing for the go-ahead.
The flea is related to a real marriage home or the bed where the speaker and the woman are bound to lie when they get married. In the second stanza, the speaker insists that the flea had already done more than they could do practically. This implies that through the flea, they had married and were living in oneness (Brackett 162). The woman goes ahead and kills the flea. This is the point where a new look is given to the imagery that is used. The persona clarifies that killing the flea caused no affect on their relationship. The flea died yet they were still alive and unhurt. Through this allusion, the speaker states that having sex with the woman was in no way going to deprive any of them the purity and the cleanness that the woman was eager to maintain. Both of them were innocent after the act, the same way they were innocent even after the woman had killed the flea that had their bloods mixed into a single life (Schulze 127). Donne uses metaphors to insinuate that flea carried three lives inside it, yet the owners of the three lives were still independent and pure. Essentially, Donne’s work highlights that the speaker could have sex with the woman, and remain pure and innocent.
Works Cited
Brackett, Virginia. The Facts on File Companion to British Poetry: 17th and 18th Centuries. New York: Facts on File, 2008. Print.
Schulze, Daniela. John Donne - "the Flea" and Andrew Marvell - "to His Coy Mistress": Metaphysical Poetry: Virginity, Sexuality and Seduction in Conceits. München: GRIN Verlag GmbH, 2008. Print.
