The Flea Feminist Analysis

The Flea: Crushed In “The Flea”, Donne attempts to seduce a woman by using a metaphor that suggests that since a flea bit them both, they might as well sleep together. Donne seems to believe that his seduction is a harmless attempt to sleep with this woman, but it is more than that. Donne’s attempt to sleep with this woman is far more than harmless as well as very consistent, he took many steps to seduce her, but his argument is simply not convincing. Although he finds his words so light and innocent, they appear to be full of lies and deceiving. Donne’s argument is full of steps to seduce this woman. At first, he says, “Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee, and in this flea, or two bloods mingled be.” By this, he meant that their bodily fluids have already met together, so there is no harm in sleeping together. He continued to say, “Where we almost, nay more than married are.” He suggests that since their blood is already mixed, that they essentially have nothing to lose. Another step towards his attempt to convince her to sleep with him is when he says, “Let not that self-murder added be, and sacrilege, three sins in

The moment that he opens up his mouth, nonsense seems to come out. “Mark but this flea, and mark in this, how little that which thou deniest me,” he states. This sentence is the sentence that he builds his argument on. It seems a little belittling the woman to question why she is denying him in the first place, as if she does not have a right to say no to him with no reason at all. As previously stated, he then attempts to build upon this argument with an explanation. He says, “Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee, and in this flea our two bloods mingled be.” As if this is something that is really going to convince her to have sex with me, he says it anyway, and he is truly convinced that it is