The Flea by John Donne
In the poem "The Flea", by John Donne, the speaker uses a peculiar
analogy in order to persuade his beloved to engage in premarital
intercourse with him. The poem is composed of three stanzas that tell
a story in chronological order about a flea that has sucked the blood
of the two subjects. It tells the reader how the speaker attempts to
persuade his beloved not to kill the flea because it is their marriage
bed and then tells of how the woman still kills the flea but how the
speaker uses that to take his argument one step further and explain
how since it is so easy and guilt-free to kill the flea, the same
could be said of her going to bed with the him.
The structure of this poem alternates metrically. It starts with lines
in iambic tetrameter and then changes to lines in iambic pentameter
and each stanza ends with two pentameter lines. The rhyme scheme in
each stanza is in couplets, with the final line rhyming with the last
couplet. Since this poem was written in the 1600’s, the words and
grammar reflect that time period. The author is still direct in the
way he chooses to word each line and is not using metaphors to
illustrate a point since the whole poem itself is an analogy of a flea
representing a union between the speaker and his beloved. Each stanza
is actually one whole sentence and he structures those sentences in a
way that makes it seem as though he is just talking to the readers,
thinking out loud, or telling us a story.
The first two lines of the poem, “Mark but this flea, and mark in
this, How little that which thou deniest me is” (1-2), tell us that
the speaker wants something and is bei...
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...r remorse by engaging in premarital intercourse with him. It
seems as though the author loses the first battle, but wins the war in
the end, which always makes for an interesting story and tale.
This poem is effective in laying out the author’s argument for getting
what he wants from his beloved. It is well organized into three brief
stanzas that clearly indicate what is happening in each situation and
how he explains his point. Although the author has a clear lack of
respect for the wishes and feelings of the woman and her parents, he
does make a compelling argument for himself on the simple analogy of a
flea as their union and marriage bed. It is clever, witty, and unique
in content, yet is written in a common, understandable metric language
and basic, clear structure which makes for a pleasant, easy, and fun
read.
Until she sees a woman creeping behind the pattern one night tempting her to go see if the wallpaper is actually moving which is when her husband catches her. He always seems to talk down to her treating her like a child in this particular instance calling her “little girl”. In spite of this she sees this as an opportunity to talk to let him know her concerns informing him that she is not getting better as he so adamantly believes. Nevertheless, her attempts are futile for he dismisses her once more putting his supposed medical opinion above his wife’s feelings. The story takes a shocking turn as she finally discerns what that figure is: a woman. As the story progress she believes the sole reason for her recovery is the wallpaper. She tells no one of this because she foresees they may be incredulous so she again feels the need to repress her thoughts and feelings. On the last night of their stay, she is determined to free the woman trapped behind bars. She begins to tear strips of the wallpaper and continues to all night by morning yards of the paper are stripped off. Her sister in law Jennie offers to help but at this point the narrator is territorially protective of the wallpaper. She locks herself in the room and is determined to strip the wall bare. As she is tearing the wallpaper apart she sees strangled heads in the pattern shrieking as the wallpaper is being torn off. At this point, she is furious and even
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Once a slave, Nanny tells of being raped by her master, an act from which Janie’s mother was brought into the world. With a
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In the short story “Being There”, by Jerzy Kosinski, there are multiple examples of satire that are displayed throughout both the book and the movie. A few of them are: media, death, politics, and racism. The satire of the media was very similar in the book and the movie. Media played a big role in society and still does to this day.
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