The Flea

Question 1

The Flea - John Donne Summary…

Answer 1

The speaker wants to have sex with his mistress but she won’t.
He says that due to the flea sucked his blood then her blood, their blood is already mingled inside the flea.
So they might as well have sex.
She wants to kill the flea, but he won’t let her because the flea represents 3 meanings; his life, her life, the fleas life. The flea is their marriage bed and marriage temple mixed in one.
The mistress kills the flea, which the speaker asks what the flea’s sin was and finalises that if she were to sleep with him then she would lose no more honour than she lost when she killed the flea.

Question 2

What themes are in the flea?

Answer 2

• Sex and marriage > poem of seduction, the speaker using an unusual approach to get his lady to bed. Virginity is unimportant. In doing so he pushes against the values of his society
• Sex and The Church > poem about illicit sex, it challenges social norms and sexuality and refers to Christianity.
• Religious imagery
• seduction and persuasion
• societal constraints on female sexuality

Question 3

What is the structure of The Flea?

Answer 3

• The stress pattern in each of the 9-line stanzas is 454545455
• The rhyme scheme in each stanza is similarly regular - in couplets with the final line rhyming with the final couplet AABBCCDDD.