The speaker is an articulate, persistent man determined to coax a reluctant virgin into his bed. Displaying the cunning of a slick lawyer, he uses religious rhetoric and glib logic to argue that their physical union is as harmless as the flea bite they just shared. He focuses entirely on his goal of sexual conquest, dominating the conversation without giving his companion a chance to speak.

The unnamed woman is a reluctant virgin who quietly but firmly resists the speaker's verbal seduction. Though she never speaks a word in the poem, her physical actions reveal her independence. She quickly crushes the flea between her fingers, actively dismantling the man's central argument and demonstrating her refusal to be easily swayed.

A small, blood-sucking parasite that becomes the central focus of the speaker's seduction attempt. Having bitten both the man and the woman, its belly swells with their mingled blood. The speaker elevates this oblivious insect to the status of a holy temple, though its existence is abruptly cut short when the woman pinches it to death.

The parents of the unnamed woman are off-stage figures who disapprove of the speaker. They represent the traditional societal and religious pressures that guard the woman's virtue and complicate the speaker's attempts to coax her into bed.