Donne's use of Conceit in his poems, and whether it overrides sincerity.
Donne’s use of Conceit in his poems, and whether it overrides _ sincerity
That Donne is concerned with wit is scarcely deniable. Through his use of conceit, a style in which John Donne reveled in, trying to prove his superior intellect to his literary piers of the time. But has his use of conceit become so intense that it has indeed detracted from the legitimate sincerity of his poems?
In The Flea, Donne manages to make an intricate and complex argument from an ordinary occurrence. He succeeds in glorifying the importance of a flea, saying "This flea is you and I, and this/ Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is". He continues, comparing it to God ("three lives in one", referring to the trinity,) and calling it "these living walls of Jet." Here he is certainly demonstrating his wit by making his argument seem valid, although it clearly is not. The significance that attributes to the flea is undeserved. The reasons given why his mistress should not kill the flea are based on its religious importance: "three lives in one flea spare," and "w'are…cloysterd in these living walls". However, the flea only has this significance because of his argument, so it is invalid. Although he says that the flea represents God, it is not necessarily the case.
Clever argument seems to recur in this poem. At the end of the poem, the persona manages to turn his mistress's reasoning on its head. He appears to have conceded that he has lost the debate ("Yet thou triumph'st, and saist that thou/ Finds not thy selfe, nor me the weaker now;") but uses her own proposition to make his point. He says that "Just so much honor, when thou yeeld'st to me,/ Will west, as this flea's death took life from thee." However, although he seems to be cleverly refuting her argument, he ignores the fact that his logic is again invalid. He says that she would not be any weaker if she were to submit to him, simply because she did not feel any pain when she killed the flea. Although this is clearly invalid, Donne's triumph is that he manages to make it seem like clever reasoning.
During this poem, it seems clear that Donne is not being genuine. Assuming that he appreciates the flaws in his argument, he does not seriously believe that his mistress should "yield… to [him]" simply because the flea has bitten both of them. The persona in the poem is trying to persuade her to sleep with him, and is using his wit to do this. As previously, the reader has no way of being aware of the persona's identity. It is therefore difficult to know whether he is being sincere, or simply being witty for the sake of showing how he can comprehend complex reasoning. This is much less likely in The Flea, because the flaws in the argument are more obvious, and the character is trying to get his mistress to submit to his wishes. This suggests that he neither respects her opinion nor genuinely cares about her.
