Thomas More Utopia Essay

Sir Thomas More was a key proponent of the renaissance Humanist movement during the 16th century. He wrote the work Utopia to critique his own society and take measures to improve their social and political problems by establishing a commonwealth that focused on abolishing private property and individuality. The goal of taking away individualism in society was to provide equal opportunities for all of its citizens. By eliminating discrepancy among individuals, More’s Utopia also eradicates jealousy, greed, poverty and other negative characteristics that currently exist during the same time in English society due to the country’s freedom of individuality. On the surface this seems like a wise idea, but by taking away individualism, More’s Utopia

In Thomas More’s book, he describes the ideal place to live. In the society he describes there is no greed, war nor corruption. More’s book implies that greed is the source of all evil and without it, we would live in Utopia. If I were to write a Part 2 of Utopia, I would include three new ideas. In addition to More’s descriptions, I would add a few of my own. It would be a place where there was no one suffered from mental illness, no hate, and crime did not exist.

Sir Thomas More was born in London to Agnes and John More a lawyer in 1477. Tomas after being a page in the Morton Household was sent to Oxford University and became a successful lawyer. After becoming an MP for the Under-Sheriff of London he started writing the book Utopia and finishing it 1516. After writing the book he was appointed as the privy councilor to King Henry VIII in 1518. He was latter executed in 1535 for refusing King Henry VIII to be the head of the church. Utopia is a fictional book about Mores talk with Raphael Nonsenso and his travels to Utopia.

“Ideas shape the course of history”- John Maynard Keynes, Economist. History has a way of always changing things. We get these ideas of how to the make the world better, how to make a country better, how a make a city better. All of these ideas of what would make the perfect place to be in. We all envision a perfect place for us to live in. We envision what the government would look like, how the government would look like. But it is not just the government we envision our own perfect way. Economic structures, religious beliefs, social customs, and legal systems, we envision these things to be perfect, according to our own wants and desires. In Sir Thomas More’s Utopia that is exactly is happening. Utopia is defined as an imagined place or

In More’s Utopia, everyone does indeed worship different gods, yet they must all believe in one single eternal power. This allows Hythloday the narrator and his comrades to convert some of the Utopians into Christians, for the citizens readily accept the one-god notion and the practice of sharing communal goods (More 517). No one is condemned due to his or her religious beliefs in Utopia. A fanatic who begins condemning other religions is tried on a charge, “not of despising their religion, but of creating a public disorder” and is sent into exile (More 518). Does this reflect a society with utopian religious ideals? In Utopia, there are two sects of religious people – the ascetic sect whose members do not marry or eat meat, and the sect that allows its members to marry and eat meat. The Utopians regard the second as more sensible, but the first holier. They believe that “anyone [who] chose celibacy over marriage and a hard life over a comfortable one on grounds of reason alone” is insane; but “as these men say they are motivated by religion, the Utopians respect and revere them” (More 520). Truly, religion shapes a nation’s identity and beliefs, and in the cases of the Blazing World and Utopia, some aspects of their religion mars their perfect societies.

The concept of utopia is one which has many differing connotations and is therefore also one which cannot be confined to one interpretation alone. The term is commonly used to represent a community or society that, in theory, possesses highly desirable or near-‘perfect’ qualities; however, these encompassing ideals, which arguably place emphasis on egalitarian principles of equality, are implemented in a number of ways and are subsequently based on varying ideologies, thus insisting on varying views of morality. The word itself, which was first coined by Sir Thomas More in the early sixteenth century and used to describe a fictional island society in the Atlantic Ocean, was taken from the Greek οὐ (‘not’) and τόπος (‘place’), literally translating

In his book Utopia, Thomas More utilizes several different rhetorical devices to not only describe Utopia as a place, but also to compare the commonwealth of Utopia to the current state of Europe at the time. One literary device used throughout the novel is tone. While there are several other literary devices that contribute to the reading of Utopia, tone is one of the most useful in determining the views of More as an author. In Utopia, more usually sustains a satirical tone, sometimes accompanied by irony, comedy, and ambiguity. These elements help to convey to the readers what More’s truly intended message is. More utilizes the device of tone in Utopia in order to showcase the fundamental differences between Utopian and European society during that time.

Although comparing one society to another does not require them to be different in government or human behavior, it does necessarily weight one’s faults against its victories to render it better or worse than the other. This comparative structure, found between Thomas More’s two books of Utopia, poses the country of Utopia opposite the broader communities of world civilization. Despite the comparison of Utopia as distinct from and morally better than widespread society, in truth Utopia is, at best, an extension.

In Thomas More’s Utopia, the elimination of property and money has all citizens working for the commonwealth. It is “where every man has a right to everything. They all know that if care is taken to keep the public stores full, no private man can want anything. For among them there is no unequal distribution so that no man is poor, none in necessity and though no man has anything, yet they are all rich” (More 81). More’s Utopia also encourages a balance of power within society. It is where an individual, in a position of power, is not “as idle as drones, that subsist on other men’s labor” (More 7) It is where that individual gives “more regard to the riches of his country than to his wealth” (More 21).

The "Middle" Ages were followed by the Renaissance, a time in which art and literature flourished. Thomas More, the first English humanist of the Renaissance, was born in London during this period. More's style is simple because of its colloquial language but a deeper look into his irony hints at deep dissatisfaction with the current thought and desire for change. "Utopia" (which in Greek means "nowhere") is the name of More's fictional island of perfected society. Thomas More's "Utopia" was the first literary work in which the ideas of Communism appeared and was highly esteemed by all the humanists of Europe in More's time. More uses the main character, Hythlodaeus, as a fictional front to express his own feelings he may have feared to

In his book Utopia, Thomas More examines a society that seems to be the ideal living situation for human beings. The main thesis of Utopia is his solution to many of the problems that are being faced in English society in the early 16th century.

     Socialist ideals have recurred throughout the history of literature; from Plato to Marx the elusive goal of a perfect state has occupied some of the best minds in political thought manifesting itself in literature. In the midst of this historic tradition is the Utopia of More, a work which links the utopias of the ancient with the utopias of the modern. Hythloday's fantasy island draws heavily on the Greek Republic and yet it influenced the revolutionary world of Marx. What values do the Utopians hold which are in common with other socialist utopian values, and which ideals of theirs are unique?

Throughout Utopia, Thomas More is able to cause many distractions to the reader while trying to determine what exactly More was trying to convey. Thomas is able to divide a short complex novel into two distinct parts with very different narrative perspectives. The first of these perspectives is Raphael Hythloday, considered to be a radical, `with utopian' ideals. The second character is Thomas More himself. Sir Thomas More did travel to Flanders on behalf of King Henry VII; however, Raphael Hythloday is only a piece of More's imagination. Soon after meeting Hythloday, we find out that he is a world traveler and philosopher. We learn of his voyages with Amerigo Vespucci, his voyage to Ceylon, Calcutta, back to Portugal, only observing social practices. At this point we read of More's infatuation with Hythloday's recollection of the island of Utopia. We then see More's criticism of society arise. When More and Giles suggest to Hythloday that he "enter the service of some king or other," Raphael responds,

Thomas More’s Utopia is a work of ambiguous dualities that forces the reader to question More’s real view on the concept of a utopian society. However, evidence throughout the novel suggests that More did intend Utopia to be the “best state of the commonwealth.” The detailed description of Utopia acts as Mores mode of expressing his humanistic views, commenting on the fundamentals of human nature and the importance of reason and natural law while gracefully combining the two seemingly conflicting ideals of communism and liberalism.

In our lives today, we take advantage of all the luxuries that are presented daily. Freedom alone is one of the greatest luxuries we possess as an American nation. In Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs and Utopia by Thomas Moore, we are presented two life styles, which some might consider very similar in various ways. Both authors focus on a peaceful living lifestyle, to better the people of the nation. Although some of their specific details are different, I believe that Jacobs would definitely approve of the features that More develops in Utopia.