The Flea.

Question 1

Overview:

Answer 1

The speaker puts forward an unconventional argument through the conceit of a flea to persuade a woman to sleep with him. The poem takes on a satirical tone as the image of the flea is used as a vessel representing the lovers physical relationship. The woman in this poem whilst not being given a voice in the poem takes an active role in dismantling the speaker’s argument by killing the flea.

Question 2

Context:

Answer 2

• Flea was ingrained in the classical ovidian tradition.
• Elizabethan society saw fleas as a token of envy because they were able to roam a woman’s body in a way that men couldn’t.
• 17th century society also saw sex as the mingling bloods - what happens in a flea.

Question 3

Amanda Boyd:

Answer 3

The winds “silent voice booms” and that because her actions dominate the action this poem acknowledges women’s capabilities and intelligence.

Question 4

Form:

Answer 4

• Apostrophe.
• Rhyming couplets demonstrate a desire to enforce unity.
• Triadic structure representative of the three distance entities in the poem.

Question 5

“Mark but this flea, and mark in this,/ how little that which thou denies me is”.

Answer 5

• Monosyllabic opening - adopts a register of legislation and didactic function.
• Harsh consonance - suggests the speakers authority.
• Parrelism of “mark” - clearly equates the fleas to the importance of virginity, trivialises the notion of virginity.

Question 6

“and pampered swells with one blood made of two./ And alas , is more than we would do”.

Answer 6

• Summative nature of the argument - presents speakers desire for sex as a legal argument.
• Double entendre of swells.
• Antithesis between one and two - emphasises the fleas power and alliteration on we would.

Question 7

“This flea is you and I, and this/ our marriage bed. and marriage temple this”.

Answer 7

• Assonance.
• Microcosm of the fleas body being a temple - an attempt to sanctify the relationship between the couple.
• Temple suggesting that the flea has brought them together spiritually.

Question 8

“cruel and sudden, hast thou since/ Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence”.

Answer 8

• enjambment - dramatises the killing of the flea.
• Purple - colour of totality - elevates the flea.
• “nail’ - suggesting the crucifixion.
• Gives the expectation that the speakers goal has failed and has been pathetically dismantled.