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

John Donne decided to use in his poem The Flea and connecting the poem with the authors

perspective of the world. In John Donnes poem, The Flea, there are different opinions formed

about exactly what the flea describes. Others argue that he can literally speaking of a flea or even

that it can involve one taking the life of another. In my opinion I believe that the author John

Donne epitomizes the concept of lust. The purpose of this poem is to describe Donnes

interpretation on how he figuratively uses a creature such as a flea to represent so much more.

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.
 Heredia 2

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

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
 Heredia 3

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 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 of Roman descent and

because of this, he could have believed that in order to create a child, two people had to combine

blood to make that possible. As a Roman Catholic, Donne 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
 Heredia 4

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.

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.
 Heredia 5

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,

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