1. Pierre Legouis mentions in his essay “The Dramatic Element in Donne’s Poetry” that there is an underlying struggle between the two characters in the poem. The women punishes the offender of her chastity the flea and it had to serve as a message of her non compliance to the speaker’s request for sex. The speaker does not accept defeat and goes on to give an excuse by commenting on the harmlessness of his own designs upon his beloved. (pg. 49)

2. S. L. Bethell mentions in his essay “The Nature of Metaphysical Wit” that “The Flea” presents an exquisitely ordered universe and the more because a beautiful order has been revealed in and through the least promising material. According to Bethell, the flea may actually be a diamond in the rough or like he says, “jewels among the mud”. (pg. 149)

3. Bethell says that the metaphor of the flea and the blood is steeped in ancient knowledge. There are teaching about blood in the Old Testament (Gen. ix. 4). (pg. 149)