Heredia 1

Angel Heredia

English 102

Professor Holly Batty

September 25, 2017

Bloodlust

In this essay I will be analyzing the metaphors and figurative language that the author

alludes to in his poem and connecting the poem with the authors perspective of the world.

In John Donnes poem, The Flea, he epitomizes the concept of lust. The poem starts with a

flea; the flea is used as a metaphor of life and sexual relations. The flea sucks both the narrator

and a young womans blood. As the poem proceeds, the flea has now taken blood from them

both and this causes their blood to become one. John believed that it was more than a simple flea

bite but a figurative expression of gathering and intimacy. John then begins to pursue the

woman, believing that the unity of their blood required the two of them to be together. He

mentions to the woman that there is no shame or sin to their special bond since the flea has bitten

them both. They must unite and become one by being with each other, or by having sexual

relations. The author uses the flea as a metaphor for sexual relations.

The author John Donne emphasizes the fact that since the flea contains both the womans

blood and his, that the flea becomes them. Triggering the woman to believe that since both of

them have been bitten, that they have no choice, but to stick together. The narrator tries to seduce

the woman by implying to her that she already lost her virginity when the flea bit her, and

therefore there is no need to worry about her sleeping with the narrator. Donne mentions, It
 Heredia 2

sucked me first, and now sucks thee, and in this flea our two bloods mingled be.(Donne 1633)

The author begins to persist with the idea that since the flea bit both, they they now have to unite

and become one, creating the idea that when two people unite, it is a commitment such as a

marriage, or that two people who are married should have sex. In the article published by Mintz,

Susannah, from St. John University she states, The speaker takes on the position not of the

invasive flea whose behavior serves as vehicle of his argument(Mintz 2001) Mintz also

believes that the narrator is trying to persuade the young women into sexual intimacy and he's

using the flea to do it, the fleas is his vehicle of argument . In the poem Donne alludes to the

blood as a metaphor of life, which is three in this case, his, hers and the fleas, which makes them

seem like one, or a family. The second stanza might also represent the narrator getting aroused

by the flea biting the young woman, making him think that it bit him first and now the flea is

biting her making him feel the excitement that both of them are being mixed. When he mentions

the word mingle it is usually used as two people mingling, which means flirting or giving one

another sexual attention and he personifies the blood and describes how both his and the

womans blood are mingling with one another.. In this poem, the tone of the narrator is

introduced as whiny and needy, making the narrator seem as a lustful person, . . . And pamper'd

swells with one blood made of two ; And this, alas! is more than we would do.(Donne 1633)

The narrators tone comes off as whiny when he is grieving due to the given fact that he is asking

for attention from the woman so that he can then sleep with her. We can also tell by the tone that

the narrator is a person who is trying to induce sexual relations with the woman by trying to

make her feel guilty. The author also mentions, et thou triumphst, and say'st that thou; findst

not thy self, nor me the weaker now;.(Donne 1633) this part of the poem emphasizes how the

woman was strong enough to say no to the narrator's offer and argument about having sexual
 Heredia 3

relations, she has triumphed over the flea and his arguments. In an article written by Mansour,

Wisam, he alludes to the fact that he recognizes the narrator is indeed trying to coax the woman

to sleep with him, mentioning Donne fundamentally probes that the dominant male sexuality

that the text appears to be pushing the woman toward.(Mansour 2006). Mansour believes that

the narrator is using his male power to influence the woman to sleep with him. At the beginning

of the poem the narrator epitomizes the flea as a symbol of life and that they both should be

united because of the flea, but now that she killed the flea she realizes that she has not lost any

strength or part of herself, therefore she has overcame the narrator's guilt and persuasion of

being sexually involved with him. She then realizes that the narrator was just trying to get her to

sleep with her. Making her the victor of the situation.

The author lived in the year 1600 during his time as a poet he wrote many erotic poems

and The Flea happened to be a very successful one. John Donne was a Roman and he believed

that in order to create a child, two people had to combine blood to make that possible. As a

Roman Catholic the author believed that for a woman to be pure she must be a virgin and in this

poem it is not clearly mentioned if the woman was a virgin, but the way he speaks about her

makes it seem like it and the flea figuratively took the virginity from her by sucking her blood

and since their blood has now fused, she is no longer pure. Since Donne now sees the flea as a

fusion of himself, the woman, and the flea, he pities it. He wants the flea to live in order for the

fusion of their blood to live. The woman does not have such understanding as Donne does and

she kills the flea towards the end of the poem destroying what he believes was themselves in this

tiny creature.
 Heredia 4

The historicism of this poem plays a huge part of the overall meaning, if it had been

created in todays date it would not have had the same meaning as it did back in the 1600s. The

language was quite different and difficult to understand but once it is all broken down whilst

having a formalist perspective, it adds up and creates a figurative story of his personal beliefs

about blood and how it is transferred by a vessel such as the flea. To many, something as small

as a flea is seen as a pesky insect who roams the world only to cause harm to others by sucking

their blood and benefiting itself. John sees the flea as the living being that carried his feelings of

intimacy and love with the woman, and it was all shattered as his love died along with the flea.

This information about the author and my scholarly articles informed me more about the

poem. The fact that the author was a roman says much about his beliefs, many romans believe

that you only have sex with the person you marry, or the person you sleep with is the person you

have to marry, so that explains the views of the narrator in this poem. Although many people

believe that expressing your sexuality in any way you desire is the right thing to do, the author

believed that the person you have sexual intimacy with should be your life partner.

Works Cited

Mintz, Susannah B. "Forget the Hee and Shee": Gender and Play in John Donne."

Modern Philology, vol. 98, no. 4, May 2001, p. 577. EBSCOhost,

 Heredia 5

library.lavc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=47

65542&site=eds-live.

Mansour, Wisam. "Donne's the Flea." The Explicator, no. 1, 2006, p. 7. EBSCOhost,

library.lavc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsglr&AN=

edsgcl.156802884&site=eds-live.

Wikisource contributors. "The Flea." Wikisource . Wikisource , 22 Aug. 2013. Web.

25 Sep. 2017. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Flea