Contemporary literary theory has thoroughly debunked the traditional view of the artist as a divinely inspired, completely original and creative individual. This view has been replaced with the more apt view of the author as a product of his or her environment and the existing discourses of the society in which he or she lives. In this new attitude toward the writer as a product of society, the author is considered, according to Dr. James E. Porter, as somewhat of a quiltmaker who takes various traces of the existing cultural intertext (the collected writing and debate of a society) and combines them in new ways to create new discourse (34). Differences in these new discourses of various authors are the result of existing debates concerning the dominant ideology of a particular society. While this theory of writing may be recent, it applies to the literature and the writers of all historical periods, including the Seventeenth century. By looking at two poems by John Donne, n amely "The Canonization" and "The Flea," we can see how existing societal debates and beliefs create literature.
At the time of the writing of "The Canonization" and "The Flea," around the turn of the seventeenth century, one of the biggest debates in English society concerned who was responsible for the choice of a mate and what the criteria should be the basis for marriage. Until the beginning of the seventeenth century, it had been traditional for the parents in the upper classes to be the sole source of marital decisions with their child having no say in the selection process and little if any say in the approval of a proposed match (Stone 70). These arranged marriages tended to be based solely on the accumulation and consolidation of wealth, property, and political power, not on matters of personal affection and attraction which we tend to focus on in the twentieth century (Stone 70-71). In this marital system, the individual was almost completely at the mercy of the collective will of the family.
The process for choosing a mate came into a state of flux during the end of the sixteenth century. During this time, the growing independence of the nuclear family from the extended kin and the closer relationships between parent and child because of lower rates of infant death lead to a greater amount of choice for the children in selecting a mate (Stone 184). While much of the upper aristocracy still reserved the right to choose the mate for their children, many families, especially in the growing bourgeois and professional classes granted their children either extensive veto rights in these proceedings or let the children themselves find and select a mate (Stone 181-182). In many cases, these more permissive parents still reserved limited veto powers, although even that was being called into question in some circles.
Similarly, the motives for choice of a spouse also began to be questioned and changed. The traditional practice of the high and low ends of the social spectrum of choosing a mate to consolidate wealth and political power came under serious criticism as being a vulgar, mercenary approach to marriage that did not make connubial bliss very likely (Stone 182). Instead, personal affection tested through a long courtship prior to matrimony started to supplant wealth as the basis for marital decisions in most social circles (Stone 182-183). In addition, more and more people began to focus on physical attractiveness and on romantic love when pursuing members of the opposite sex for either marriage or less socially accepted relationships (Stone 183). These last two choices, however, were not viewed by society as a whole as safe bases for a relationship, their nature being too ephemeral (Stone 183).
In Donne's poetry, we can see these traditional attitudes towards marriage and relationships being called into question and being critiqued. In "The Flea," we have a speaker who seems to be espousing a view of relationship based on independent choice, physical attraction, and romantic love. Throughout the poem, the speaker argues, through the metaphor of the flea, that the two of them should act on their physical attraction and just have sex. The old practice of parental choice and consent in matters of relationship is dismissed in line 14 wherein he argues that "though parents grudge" they are still joined in the flea that has sucked their blood and should be joined in other ways as well. In "The Canonization," the speaker seems to be arguing against the practice of marrying for economic concerns in favor of romantic love. In the first stanza, the speaker invites the critic that he addresses to "chide...ruined fortune" by flouting "with wealth your [the addressee's] state (lines 3-4). In the rest of the stanza, the speaker welcomes his audience to seek political and economic power from a variety of sources, so long as he is left alone to pursue romantic love.
Another common belief that Donne calls into question or plays off of in his poetry is the seventeenth century view of sex. At the time of Donne's writings, venereal diseases were very widespread and difficult if not impossible to cure (Stone 306). The lack of contraception and knowledge of fertility cycles also made sex a very scary prospect, since, to the best of anyone's knowledge, any sexual intercourse could possibly lead to pregnancy (Stone 307). Considering the life-threatening nature of childbirth at this particular moment in history, the threat of pregnancy seems to have been a fairly powerful deterrent. And, as if these very real dangers were not enough, the body of medical knowledge of the time argued that sexual intercourse weakened the body and shortened one's life (Stone 311). In a way, sex in the seventeenth century was a no-win situation.
This view of sex as a harmful physical activity comes under attack and subversion in Donne's poetry. The speaker of "The Flea" addresses the concerns of harm resulting from sex in the final stanza following the woman's killing of the flea. After the flea, representing sexual union, has been crushed, the speaker responds to her action by pointing out "Find'st not thyself, nor me the weaker now;/'Tis true, then learn how false, fears be;" or, in other words, "Look, you won't get pregnant or catch a disease or shorten your life if you have sex with me" (lines 24-25). In "The Canonization," the speaker also addresses these misconceptions. In the third stanza, the speaker grants that through his and his partner's love-making they "are tapers too, and at their own cost die" (line 21). However, he goes on to relate that the two of them combine to form something analogous to the mythical Phoenix and "die and rise the same, and prove/Mysterious by this love" (lines 26-27). Thus, to this speaker, sex is also a source of life as well as death.
In seventeenth century England, sex could also be the source of great social harm in addition to physical harm--at least for women. There was definitely a double standard concerning sex in British society at this point in history. For the man, it was perfectly acceptable (even expected) for him to have sexual experience prior to marriage and any number of infidelities following it (Stone 315). Women, on the other hand, were expected to remain virginal until their wedding night (Stone 315). For a woman, her honor in the seventeenth century depended almost exclusively on her reputation of chastity as a result of the traditional view of women as sexual property (Stone 316). This leads one to wonder where all of the men were expected to gain all of their extramarital sexual experience.
This issue of sexual double standards is quite cleverly addressed by the amorous speakers in Donne's poetry. The speaker of "The Flea" addresses the issue by insisting that the circumstances necessary for a woman to have sex and preserve her honor are present. In the second stanza, the speaker calls on her to spare the flea's life for it is:
Where we almost, nay, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is (lines 21-23).
It is all right for them to have sex since, according to the speaker, they are already married. The speaker of "The Canonization" takes a different approach to justifying the behavior of his lover. By stating in the third stanza that the two of them compose the Phoenix by "we two being one, are it" and that into "one neutral thing both sexes fit," the speaker makes the case that distinctions should not be made between the genders (lines 24-25). According to this logic, neither sex should be condemned for its actions since the two are merely two parts to a divine whole that is created through sexual union.
While the romantic and New Criticist approaches to poetry may seem very tempting, neither of them give a very thorough analysis of their subject matter. Donne's poems could be appreciated for their incredible imagery and emotional intensity alone, but by considering the social context that they grew out of and how they address it, a whole new level of meaning is open to enrich and problematize our reading. Only by analyzing the historical and social context of a poem can one truly see all of the dynamics at work within a poem. These analytical methods may not simplify the process of reading and interpreting literature, but they provide a greater depth of understanding and appreciation that should be of interest to students of literature.
Works Cited
Donne, John. "The Canonization." The Literature of Renaissance England. Ed. John Hollander and Frank Kermode. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973. 526-27.
Donne, John. "The Flea." The Literature of Renaissance England. Ed. John Hollander and Frank Kermode. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973. 534-35.
Porter, James. "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community." Rhetoric Review Fall 1986: 34-47.
Stone, Lawrence. The Family, Sex and Marriage In England 1500- 1800. Abr. Ed. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1979.