Gender Roles in "The Flea" by John Donne

In the majority of John Donne’s poetry, it is easy to characterize Donne as a domineering speaker, one who frequently overbears the female voice. Yet in “The Flea,” Donne complicates the prototypical gender roles seen in most early modern love poetry. Throughout the poem, the poet uses symbolism and unspoken dialogue to imply a complicated and conflicted relationship with the poem’s addressee. Instead of insisting upon a stable patriarchy, Donne uses these devices to destabilize hierarchal systems of power associated with gender.

Exhibiting classic elements of metaphysical poetry, Donne utilizes the most unlikely images to symbolize romance. In this poem, it is the flea itself that the speaker uses to try and persuade his lover to engage in premarital sex. By using the flea as a symbolic framework element, Donne is able to set up a unique banter between the speaker and his addressee. To the speaker, their “mingled” blood within the flea’s body is equivalent to the exchange of bodily fluids during sexual intercourse (4). However, his recipient obviously does not agree, having “denied” him what the flea symbolically enjoys (2). Unlike lots of love poetry where the male figure dominates, the flea serves as a symbol for the mutual union of love making and a woman’s role in seduction. The opening stanza provides a compelling example of previously mentioned blurred gender lines: the male seducer becomes identified with the seduced female by the insects mutual sucking (“It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee”; line 3). In a sense, Donne introduces the innovative idea that romance is mutual and sacred, rather than solely for a man’s sexual pleasure. While an overall look at the poem may lead readers to believe the speaker is a misogynistic character concerned only with his own sexual gratification, a closer look at the speaker’s persuasive monologue suggests a progressive view of women.

“The Flea” depicts an interaction between two equally intelligent people playfully challenging each other. Although the woman in the poem is silent for its entirety, it is ironically her unspoken voice which controls the poem. By even suggesting the woman’s ability to engage in a witty argument, Donne is subtly complimenting female intelligence. Not only does she have the ability to understand his proposition, but also to respond and participate in the banter. Furthermore, the woman is presented as preoccupied with preserving her honor, or “maidenhead,” instead of succumbing to the male’s plea (6). The opening lines “Marke but this flea, and marke in this, / How little that which thou deny'st me is” immediately establishes a woman’s right to refuse a man’s sexual desires (1-2). The later lines regarding “a sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead” indicates the woman’s desire to remain pure and virtuous - positive attributes in the eyes of early modern society (6). By presenting the poem’s addressee as morally excellent, Donne reveals the barbaric and overtly sexualized ideals possessed by men. Likewise, Donne emphasizes a woman’s power to deny a man sex. Although the male speaker presents a somewhat convincing argument, the woman ultimately controls the outcome. By line 19, the poem’s addressee has become “cruel and sudden,” and she decisively kills the flea. By “purple[ing] [her] nail in blood of innocence,” the woman kills not only the flea, but also symbolically squashes any hope the speaker may have had in getting the woman into bed with him (20). Granting the woman power to deny the man and “triumph” in the argument suggests an implicit praise of virtuous women (23). By refusing to accommodate the speaker’s wishes, the addressee maintains her purity and honor throughout the entire poem. Thus, instead of creating a weak and vulnerable woman, Donne choses to present the poem’s addressee as a woman who has her own self-agency and righteousness.

Ostensibly, “The Flea” can be seen as a contemptuous representation of women. However, a closer reading of the poem reveals Donne’s desire to destabilize conventional gender hierarchies. Throughout the poem, the poet uses symbolism and unspoken dialogue to imply a complicated and conflicted relationship with the poem’s addressee. Presenting the woman in the poem as respectable and wholesome allows for a stark contrast to the overtly horny and sexualized male speaker. Ultimately, it is important to look below the surface before attempting to characterize John Donne as a misogynistic male chauvinist.

Work Cited

Donne, John. “The Flea.” Seventeenth Century British Poetry: 1603 - 1660. Ed. John Rumrich and Gregory Chaplin. New York: Norton, 2006. Page 33. Print.