"The FleA"

The religious imagery used throughout John Donne’s “The Flea” is intended to prompt his lover to relate their shared closeness, symbolized by the flea, to the beloved’s close relationship to her religion. To acknowledge this closeness is to acknowledge that sleeping together is permissible, which could lead to the conclusion Donne wants his lover to realize: she should give into his temptations because there is nothing wrong with the “intimate mingling” of two people, that it’s acceptable for him to taker her virginity.
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