Explore how ‘The Flea’ by John Donne makes
use of surprising arguments. You must
discuss relevant contextual factor
In ‘The Flea’, John Donne uses surprising arguments to challenge
societal norms of relationships. This contentious idea reveals a
personal side of Donne that he had not intended to reveal to the
public, only to his friends in taverns, allowing the reader to view his
shocking arguments as an element of his true identity, contrasting to
his professional profile, whilst conversely enabling the reader to see
this poem as an extreme creative outlet.
Donne’s argument provokes surprise as a result of the profane being
juxtaposed with the religious. Through the flea Donne reduces sexual
intercourse to the sharing of blood instead of portraying it to be a
sacred act within the marital relationship, reflecting a mutual gift of a
man and woman, that Catholics thought it to be. Notable is the line ‘It
sucked me first, and now sucks thee’ as Jacobean text would have led
to the ‘s’ appearing as an ‘f’, demonstrating the profane through
subtle vulgar language, but also highlighting the unfaithfulness of the
flea through anthropomorphism and completely distinguishing the
importance of marriage. Through this Donne exposes a hidden
insecurity whilst uncovering the unholy within a deed which should
be religious. The choice of image as he writes ‘in this flea, out two
bloods mingled be’, develops the argument’s surprising nature as he
persuades his lover to have sex with him as their bodily fluids have
already mixed within the flea, meaning she is no longer a virgin and
therefore, there will be ‘no loss of maidenhead’. This is surprising
since this contrasts with what Donne’s upbringing as a Catholic
would have taught him; that sexual relationships should only happen
in marriage and thus women should remain virgins until marriage. By
asserting the claim that virginity is unimportant and that its loss will
not be ‘a sin, nor shame’, he repels and opposes the values of his
society, which valued female virginity and pressured women to
preserve it until marriage. Hence, the Persona’s argument is made to
be shocking as the poem overall exposes a space for sexual pleasure
beyond marriages’ boundaries. The sibilance of ‘sin’, ‘shame’ and
‘loss’ adds a tone far from seductive and instead rather sinister. This
use of surprising arguments. You must
discuss relevant contextual factor
In ‘The Flea’, John Donne uses surprising arguments to challenge
societal norms of relationships. This contentious idea reveals a
personal side of Donne that he had not intended to reveal to the
public, only to his friends in taverns, allowing the reader to view his
shocking arguments as an element of his true identity, contrasting to
his professional profile, whilst conversely enabling the reader to see
this poem as an extreme creative outlet.
Donne’s argument provokes surprise as a result of the profane being
juxtaposed with the religious. Through the flea Donne reduces sexual
intercourse to the sharing of blood instead of portraying it to be a
sacred act within the marital relationship, reflecting a mutual gift of a
man and woman, that Catholics thought it to be. Notable is the line ‘It
sucked me first, and now sucks thee’ as Jacobean text would have led
to the ‘s’ appearing as an ‘f’, demonstrating the profane through
subtle vulgar language, but also highlighting the unfaithfulness of the
flea through anthropomorphism and completely distinguishing the
importance of marriage. Through this Donne exposes a hidden
insecurity whilst uncovering the unholy within a deed which should
be religious. The choice of image as he writes ‘in this flea, out two
bloods mingled be’, develops the argument’s surprising nature as he
persuades his lover to have sex with him as their bodily fluids have
already mixed within the flea, meaning she is no longer a virgin and
therefore, there will be ‘no loss of maidenhead’. This is surprising
since this contrasts with what Donne’s upbringing as a Catholic
would have taught him; that sexual relationships should only happen
in marriage and thus women should remain virgins until marriage. By
asserting the claim that virginity is unimportant and that its loss will
not be ‘a sin, nor shame’, he repels and opposes the values of his
society, which valued female virginity and pressured women to
preserve it until marriage. Hence, the Persona’s argument is made to
be shocking as the poem overall exposes a space for sexual pleasure
beyond marriages’ boundaries. The sibilance of ‘sin’, ‘shame’ and
‘loss’ adds a tone far from seductive and instead rather sinister. This
