John Donne's "The Flea"

John Donne is considered by many literary scholars to be the face of all metaphysical poets. His ingenious use of metaphor, imagery, and adjectives create a vibrant language that was not rivaled by his contemporaries and competition. In his own poem, “The Flea,” Donne accurately expresses the power and beauty behind even the smallest of animals that is commonly regarded as a household nuisance.

            “Mark this flea, and mark in this, how little that which thou denied me is;” John Donne immediately begins his poem by laying forth the problem, or conflict, as a statement to the narrator’s wife. Although he does not yet name the conflict, he acknowledges its presence in the second line of the first stanza. Later, Donne proclaims the flea has sucked the blood of both himself and his wife; therefore, the flea has joined them in the most intimate of ways. He reveals this is what is wife has denied him. The mixing of blood is symbolic of the intimate bond that is experienced during sexual intercourse. The narrator states that the flea has bonded the two people, in ways that the wife has not allowed.

            Soon, the wife motions to kill the flea. The narrator prevents her from doing so, proclaiming the flea in fact consists of three lives. The life of himself, his wife, and the flea itself are all contained within the flea’s body. Donne then writes, “three sins in killing three.” Through this statement, Donne is claiming that to kill the flea would be to commit three murders and not merely one, because the flea contains its own blood, the blood of his wife, and the blood of himself. Te narrator, in his attempt to prevent the wife from ending the flea’s wife, may also be attempting to save the consummation of his “marriage bed.” The flea has mingled the blood of the narrator and the wife, and has essentially has interlocked the souls of the two people. To kill the flea would also be to kill its creation. Although Donne only specifically writes of three sins, a fourth sin would exist in destroying the beautiful union the flea has created.

            Donne’s concludes his poem with a conversation between the wife and the narrator, discussing the sinfulness of killing the flea. The wife claims that killing the flea would make neither of them evil people, and would not invade their moral character. The narrator agrees, and argues that partaking in sexual with him will not result in the degradation of her reputation, sanity, or moral being. Donne compares the act of killing the flea to an act of loss, if viewed from certain perspectives. Although intercourse is ultimately a bonding experience, and creates an intimacy that is rivaled by no other physical expression, it also signals the loss of a certain amount of purity. One loses their own virginity when they experience intercourse for the first time; and just as killing the flea would result in a loss of the flea’s life, intercourse would result in the loss of virginity. However, this loss of “innocence” is inconsequential, in the eyes of the narrator.

            John Donne’s poem “The Flea” accurately portrays a small mental skirmish between a man and his wife. Donne cleverly uses the context of an argument to convey a metaphor of sexual tension. His use of an argument itself replaces his own views, and creates an indirect and powerful message that is revealed as the poem progresses. John Donne successfully uses metaphor to convey his belief that one should not fear the consummation of marriage.