Summary Of One Flea Spare
One Flea spare is not an original title, it is derived from the third stanza of John Donne’s poem, “The Flea”, the first point in the script where a semiological analysis can take place. Semiotics, as defined by Fortier “...is the study of signs—those objects by which humans communicate meaning: words, images, behavior, arrangements of many kinds, in which a meaning or idea is relayed by a corresponding manifestation we can perceive” (Pg 19). Fortier mentions words as one of the ways humans communicate meaning. When reading a play, you are only given the words presented on the page and therefore can only analyze that specific region of semiotics.“Semiological analysis of the word can be situated at different levels: not only at the semantic level (which deals with words as well as sentences and complex units), but also at the phonological, syntactic, prosodic etc… levels” ( Kowzan Pg. 62). Phonological, meaning the branch of linguistics that deals with the system of sounds; syntactic, meaning the arrangement of the words, and Prosodic, meaning the patterns of stress and
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intonation. All of these elements play into the way you read literature. One of the reasons Shakespeare is so well known comes from his ability to write in iambic pentameter, which can be analyzed under the prosodic level of semiotics.
In Naomi Wallace’s play, One Flea Spare, a semiological analysis of the word takes place before the play even starts.
The title is drawn from the line, “ Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare…” opening the play with a sense of desperation, a plea to be spared, and just like that you are aware that combined lives are at stake. The play is set in Westminster, London in 1665 during an outbreak of the plague, causing certain families to be quarantined in their homes. The Snelgraves in particular have been locked up in their home and are close to release when two people break in and are then punished by another 28 days in quarantine. During their imprisonment they slowly get to know their cellmates who caused the extended sentence. While in conversation with Bunce, Mr. Snelgrave repeats three words, seemingly insignificant until they are repeated in slight variation by Morse less than ten pages
later.
Snelgrave: Oh death, death, death. Pg. 16
Morse: Dead, dead, dead… Pg. 23 After Mr. Snelgrave imagines a tragic life on the sea in which he kills off the sailors, but does so in a manner insinuating they would be dead yet never directly says they die, but ends his sentiment with “Oh death…” Looking at it from a syntactic point of view, the “Oh” at the beginning of the sentence makes it sound as if he’s taking a familiar tone with death, while the dental fricative (“th”) ending of the words give it a softer quality. Adding to this is the weight of the noun, while it could just be the literal translation: the state of being dead, you also have to wonder if the author isn’t alluding to the fact that Mr. Snelgrave will soon be on a first name basis with Death. When Morse says her line it has a phonological level of analysis. Choosing to end the word in an alveolar plosive (“d”) gives the word a more threatening tone, as if she is the one causing people to die around her. One thing both lines have in common is the repetition in three. All of the repetition in both lines can’t help but point way back to the title, coming from a poem in which three lives are at stake. Dead, dead, dead. Making a complete circle of semiological analysis through words.
intonation. All of these elements play into the way you read literature. One of the reasons Shakespeare is so well known comes from his ability to write in iambic pentameter, which can be analyzed under the prosodic level of semiotics.
In Naomi Wallace’s play, One Flea Spare, a semiological analysis of the word takes place before the play even starts.
The title is drawn from the line, “ Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare…” opening the play with a sense of desperation, a plea to be spared, and just like that you are aware that combined lives are at stake. The play is set in Westminster, London in 1665 during an outbreak of the plague, causing certain families to be quarantined in their homes. The Snelgraves in particular have been locked up in their home and are close to release when two people break in and are then punished by another 28 days in quarantine. During their imprisonment they slowly get to know their cellmates who caused the extended sentence. While in conversation with Bunce, Mr. Snelgrave repeats three words, seemingly insignificant until they are repeated in slight variation by Morse less than ten pages
later.
Snelgrave: Oh death, death, death. Pg. 16
Morse: Dead, dead, dead… Pg. 23 After Mr. Snelgrave imagines a tragic life on the sea in which he kills off the sailors, but does so in a manner insinuating they would be dead yet never directly says they die, but ends his sentiment with “Oh death…” Looking at it from a syntactic point of view, the “Oh” at the beginning of the sentence makes it sound as if he’s taking a familiar tone with death, while the dental fricative (“th”) ending of the words give it a softer quality. Adding to this is the weight of the noun, while it could just be the literal translation: the state of being dead, you also have to wonder if the author isn’t alluding to the fact that Mr. Snelgrave will soon be on a first name basis with Death. When Morse says her line it has a phonological level of analysis. Choosing to end the word in an alveolar plosive (“d”) gives the word a more threatening tone, as if she is the one causing people to die around her. One thing both lines have in common is the repetition in three. All of the repetition in both lines can’t help but point way back to the title, coming from a poem in which three lives are at stake. Dead, dead, dead. Making a complete circle of semiological analysis through words.