Compare and contrast the attempts at seduction in To His Coy Mistress and The Flea Essay Example
Compare and contrast the attempts at seduction in To His Coy Mistress and The Flea Essay Example

Compare and contrast the attempts at seduction in To His Coy Mistress and The Flea Essay Example

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  • Pages: 7 (1751 words)
  • Published: October 25, 2017
  • Type: Essay
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Despite sharing the goal of seducing an unresponsive love interest, To His Coy Mistress and The Flea employ distinct approaches to accomplish their objectives.

The focus of the speaker in To His Coy Mistress is mainly on time, along with the physical appearance of his mistress. On the other hand, the speaker in The Flea places more emphasis on the flea and less on the woman he is trying to seduce. This could be due to the improvisational nature of The Flea's speaker, who discusses what he sees or what influences him at the moment. The poem appears to start midway through the seduction, and the speaker needs more ideas to help him make his case after having failed previously. In contrast, the speaker in To His Coy Mistress has prepared an argument and therefore selects his material carefully. Both poems have tripartite

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structures, but that is where their similarities end. To His Coy Mistress is syllogistic and implies a necessary conclusion, even though the argument is non-sequitur.

Despite its tripartite structure, The Flea differs from syllogisms, which have a long history of being an effective way to present logical arguments. By contrast, the poem is based on real-life events rather than being a staged argument. While this improvisation has both benefits and drawbacks, it means that the conclusion is not as necessary and the argument is not as logical as in a syllogism.

The Flea speaker benefits from improvising his argument to showcase his wit, potentially aiding his argument. The reluctance obstacle is established early on in each poem, providing the woman with the power to dictate the outcome of the seduction, with the

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breaking down of reluctance as the goal. This reluctance stems from societal pressures surrounding premarital sex and justifies the woman's hesitance. Thus, the persuasion tactics used by the speakers are ethically ambiguous, echoing their own lustful desires. In both poems, the woman's honor is a central issue, though the speakers diminish its importance. In To His Coy Mistress, honor is described as "quaint" and trivialized as meaningless after death.

Both To His Coy Mistress and The Flea propose that honor is insignificant in different ways. In To His Coy Mistress, the speaker uses the imagery of worms to suggest that if the woman does not submit to him, she may lose her "long preserved virginity" to them. Similarly, in The Flea, the mixture of bloods inside the now dead flea is used as an analogy for the insignificance of sex and honor. The speaker argues that since the woman has killed the flea without losing anything, she has also not lost anything by having sex with him. Both poems differ in their reasons for proposing that honor is insignificant - To His Coy Mistress uses lack of time as the main reason while The Flea uses the analogy of liquids being mixed inside a flea during sex. However, neither idea is completely original since both fleas and time have been used in seductive poetry before.

The theme of time has long been associated with love poetry throughout history. This is evident in the works of Robert Herrick, such as "To Enjoy The Time", and some of Shakespeare's sonnets including LXIII and LXV. Herrick's "To Enjoy The Time 1" mirrors the line "let us sport us while

we may" from "To His Coy Mistress 37". Similarly, Herrick's "And End Decreed 1" echoes the sentiment with "Let's be jocund while we may". In "To His Coy Mistress", time is used to persuade the woman to act immediately before they both age and die, giving logic to the argument. In "The Flea", the analogy of the mingling of blood within the flea is extended to represent sexual intercourse, forming the entire basis of the speaker's argument that if the flea has already penetrated the woman, then he should too. Despite making references to sex throughout both poems, it remains a taboo topic and is not openly discussed.

The initial stanza of To His Coy Mistress embodies the speaker's endeavor to demonstrate to his beloved the sincerity of his love for her, highlighting its resemblance to courtly love. The speaker idealizes his argument by depicting what he would do if infinite time were at their disposal.The speaker explains why his love for the woman's body slowly grew. He emphasizes his love by saving praise for her heart last, like the phrase "save the best until last". This shows that he isn't only interested in her physical qualities, but also intrigued by them. The speaker believes the woman deserves endless praise and if it were possible, he would devote himself completely to her in a perfect world. However, they don't live in a perfect world so they should enjoy their time together while they can. In the second stanza, the speaker is more practical and focuses on the present truth rather than idealism.

The second premise of the syllogism is presented in the second stanza, which leads to

the deductive conclusion. The stanza highlights the destructive power of time, rendering honour and virginity useless. Time is depicted as relentless, damaging, and swift, with the speaker hearing "Time's winged chariot hurrying near" (21-2) constantly. While time is generally described as winged or in a chariot, alluding to the Greek god of time, it is not usually associated with both at the same time, emphasizing its speed. The speaker then considers the consequences if time were to destroy his mistress before he could take her virginity. This includes worms consuming the preserved virginity and his mistress' unique honour turning into dust while his desire turning into ashes.

In this section of the stanza, all is desolate, akin to the vast eternity of deserts that loom before the couple after death. The speaker uses this imagery to urge the mistress to overcome her hesitance towards intimacy. Although To His Coy Mistress is primarily written in iambic pentameter, "desolate" is trochaic to emphasize the vastness of eternity. The stanza ends with a reference to death and the grave, which the speaker does not fear except for the fact that no one can embrace there. This discussion of death implies that sex must occur while the couple is alive, and since time is fleeting, it must happen soon. This leads to the conclusion of the syllogistic argument. The final stanza concludes that the speaker and his mistress should enjoy their youth and have sex immediately. The speaker gives multiple reasons to support this idea while praising his mistress, ultimately leading to an optimistic ending.

In the poem "The Flea", the speaker makes various attempts to persuade his mistress

to engage in sexual activity, using lines such as "Let us sport us while we may" (37), "instant fires" (36) and "Rather at once our time devour" (39). The rationale behind this urgency is that delaying sex could decrease their chance for victory over time, which could result in pregnancy and the birth of a child who would outlive them. Throughout the text, the speaker's language is intense and aggressive, indicating a strong desire for immediate gratification. For example, "tear our pleasures with rough strife" (43) is a violent image that emphasizes the need for urgency in fulfilling their desires. The opening stanza of the poem uses the analogy of the flea to suggest that through sexual penetration, the flea has effectively had sex with both the man and woman, making it reasonable for the speaker to suggest they engage in sexual activity as well.The speaker advises the woman to not view coitus as "A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead" (line 6), citing her attitude towards the flea's penetration. Additionally, the speaker points out that the flea "sucked me first, and now sucks thee" (line 3), which is a pun on the letter 's' written with a 'long s' symbol. This pun emphasizes the speaker's intent to convey that sex is unimportant.

The middle stanza of The Flea digresses from the attempt to seduce the woman and instead focuses on the preservation of the flea's life. The speaker employs the flea's sacredness to reinforce his argument that killing the flea would also kill parts of themselves. Using religious references such as "three sins in killing three" (18), the speaker attempts to ensure the flea's

safety. However, the speaker avoids using religion elsewhere in the poem as it might conflict with his efforts to persuade the woman into engaging in premarital sex - an act frowned upon by the church, much like his own lustful desires which fall under the Seven Deadly Sins.

The idea of the nobility of love is developed in this stanza similarly to the pure courtly love in To His Coy Mistress. However, the love depicted in To His Coy Mistress is more genuine than the love used to save an analogous argument in The Flea. The final stanza of The Flea contains the speaker's reaction to the woman killing the flea despite his pleadings. Initially defeated, he asks the woman for a reason for the "cruel and sudden" (19) murder of the flea, highlighting his attitude towards the flea's death. The speaker is more concerned with his argument being dismantled rather than the flea's life. He even concedes that the woman has triumphed over him, but quickly turns the situation around to support his argument, showcasing his wit and quick-thinking that has been evident throughout the poem. The analogy on which the poem is based also demonstrates this. Ultimately, he claims that he has abandoned his argument and concurs with the woman that the flea's fate is insignificant.

He suggests that she should consider her argument of keeping her honor as insignificant, since the flea is comparable to sex, and if the flea is unimportant, then so is sex. Both To His Coy Mistress and The Flea end on a positive note, as they attempt to seduce with determination. The speaker in To His Coy Mistress

believes that his conclusion is necessary due to his use of syllogism, resulting in a successful seduction. However, the reader perceives the argument presented in To His Coy Mistress as inductive rather than deductive and is not entirely convinced of its success.

In contrast to The Sun Rising, The Flea concludes with the speaker demonstrating his wit and ability to counter any argument the woman he is attempting to seduce may present. This victory appears to be more impressive than in The Sun Rising.

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