The Flea By John Donne

In the poem ”The Flea” by John Donne, the speaker swings between the fantasy and reality. The speaker who left himself down find strength in fantasy, and satisfies and imagination. However, when he comes bake to reality, he is mad at himself for this daydream. There are 4 shifts in poem. First, the shift is after line 4. At the beginning, the speaker is in reality, so speaker’s mood is normal. Then, based on “A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead” (6), the mood of the speaker changes into guilty. The speaker immerses himself in the fantasy: having sex with that lady. It is the shame at the time, so the speaker turns to be a little bit guilty. Secondly, the shift is between line 8 and line 9, speaker comes back to reality. The attitudes
of the speaker change. The speaker realizes their relationship can not be more than a flea. Therefore, he comes back to imagination again immediately. The third shift is after stanza one. The speaker comes back to his fantasy. As his desired lady has made a move to kill the flea, the speaker stays her in hand. Regardless she “adt to kill” (16), the speaker says she would be guilty of “sacrilege, three sins in killing three” (18). All of these reflects that the speaker is angry at the flea that it destroyed his life. However, he suddenly realizes all of these are just fantasy; how can he ban someone for destroying something he doesn’t even have? Finally, the tone shifts in the last stanza. The speaker can not find love in reality, so he falls himself into fantasy to delight himself. When his imagination is gone, he gets back his lonely, sad, single life.