Thomas More was born in London in 1478. He studied at Oxford where he took a profound love of classical literature. In Utopia, More shows his own skills in humanism. In this story, modeled after Plato's Republic, More examines his culture against a hypothetical culture he invents. His Utopia varies greatly from both his society and our society today. Four ways Utopia differs from our society are social system, attitude towards jewelry, marriage customs, and religion.
First, the people of More's Utopia have a complex communism compared to our modern neo-fascist culture. In Utopia, the government owns the business world. The government forces men to work the land in two-year stints. In modern society, the government does not own the economy but it does control the economy. The government does not make men be farmers but it does tell farmers how much to grow. Furthermore, it penalizes those who disobey its command.
Second, Utopians treat precious metals and jewels radically different than modern society. Today people adorn all sorts of jewelry to beautify themselves or attract attention to them. These precious metals are golden calves to many people. People today are like the Anemolian ambassadors, they strut their fine jewels because they are "more proud than wise, they decide, they decide to dress as splendidly as the very gods."
Third, the Utopian attitude towards money differs from modern society. The Utopians highly prize virginity. The government forbids marriage for life those who commit premarital intercourse. Yet the percentage of people marrying without premarital intercourse in our society is minute. In most cases, the couple has a long-standing sexual relationship.
Fourth, the religion of the Utopians is much like modern religion with one major exception. The religious beliefs of both societies are pluralistic. Utopia allows all religion except our most dominant religion: secular humanism (i.e. "atheism"). A man, who believes blind chance not divine providence, determines actions, is less than a man. In our culture of neo-Darwinism and "man is pure matter," everything is by chance.
The authors therefor saw the ‘utopian’ societies to be a trap for weak minded publics, and that once in place, such systems would be able to perpetuate indefinitely due to the efficiency at which they protect and propagate themselves. Through fear, diversion and sedation the utopia can maintain a strong grip on the people it encompasses before anyone realizes the sacrifices made. The popularity of these books does rule out the possibility of such a society coming into existence in the future, however. The state of people is not about to change, and their ignorance will continue regardless of the harshness of the wake up calls issued.
Utopia is a term invented by Sir Thomas More in 1515. However, he traces the root two Greek words outopia and eutopia which means a place does not exist and a fantasy, invention. It is widely accepted that Plato was to first to picture a utopian order. In his masterpiece, “Republic”, he formed the principles of ideal commonsense and his utopia (Hertzler, 1922:7). After the classical age, Sir Thomas More assumed to be the first of the utopian writers in early modern period. As a humanist, he gave the world in his “Utopia” a vision of a perfect communistic commonwealth (the history of utopian thought). Utopia’s influence on contemporary and rival scholars is so deep that it has given its name to whole class of literature. Following the appearance of More’s Utopia, there was a lack of Utopian literature for nearly a century (Hertzler, 1922:7). This period ended with the works of Francis Bacon, Campanelle and Harrington. These early modern utopians, being the children of Renaissance, filled with a love of knowledge and high respect for the newly truths of science. Thus, they believed that the common attainment of knowledge means the largest participation of all members of society in its joys and benefits. After the period of early Utopians, continuation of a sprit of French Revolution and initial signs of industrial revolution resulted in the emergence of a new group of Utopians called Socialist Utopians (Hertzler, 1922: 181). The word “Socialism” seems to have been first used by one of the leading Utopian Socialists, St Simon. In politics utopia is a desire that never come true neither now nor afterwards, a wish that is not based on social forces (material conditions and production) and is not supported by the growth and development of political, class forces. This paper discusses the validity of this claim, tries to present and evaluate the political reforms, if any, offered by Socialist Utopians.
The so-called Utopia – the quasi-perfect society – flourishes in Margaret Cavendish’s “The Description of a New World, Called a Blazing World” and Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. While the former is a dreamlike account of fantasy rule and the latter a pseudo-realistic travelogue, both works paint a picture of worlds that are not so perfect after all. These imperfections glitter like false gemstones in the paths of these Utopians’ religious beliefs, political systems, and philosophical viewpoints.
Most utopian religions incorporate a monotheistic religion that has one all-powerful god that is responsible for all the death, life, and change in the universe. Utopian beliefs are consistent on the nature of god; however, they are somewhat divided on several aspects of him. They are not unified about what they should worship to glorify their god or exactly what he is beyond the examples listed above.
In order to create structure in a society, one must ensure the care of its people. In the imaginary civilization of Utopia, the main strategy is to "get through life as comfortably and cheerfully as we can, and help other members of our species to do so too" (More 92). More focuses on the well being of its citizens to create happiness and order within the society. He does this by initiating the idea of human rights and equality. With the sense of equality in society people can help each other to live blissfully, and stop trying to become better than their neighbors.
Before reading Utopia, it is essential that the reader understand that like Jonathan Swift’s, A Modest Proposal, Utopia is satirical. More creates a frame narrative in which Raphael Hythloday, the novel’s main character, recollects his observations of Utopia during his five-year stay. Hythloday spares no detail in his descriptions of Utopia, as he discusses everything from their military practices, foreign relations, religion, philosophy, and marriage customs. Interestingly enough, everything Hythloday discusses in Book II seems to be a direct response to of all of t...
In order to maintain a society free of social inequality both authors set up a civilization based on strict societal structure. In More’s Utopia, a system was set up so that all work was completed.
George Gilliam Marx/More Comparative Essay English 215 In both Thomas More’s Utopia and Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, we see the authors portray two different visions of an improved reality in which all citizens are on an equal plane with one another. Both works stem from the authors’ own grievances regarding the ‘status quo’, and seek to provoke serious thought and (in Marx’s case) action about the existing state of affairs in their respective times. The context of both of these works is quite important when considering the substance of Utopia and the Communist Manifesto – Thomas More lived in a time when Europe’s government was based on of Feudalism, meaning royal families and rich nobles had the overwhelming majority of power. Marx lived during the Industrial Revolution, when class antagonisms became rather aggressive due to the major gap between rich and poor (Bourgeois and Proletariat) as a result of the greater need for a large number of workers and the subsequent wealthy minority. Utopia and the Communist Manifesto are similar in the way that they propose or at least stir visions of major changes in ideology, but both have a number of key differences as well. More’s Utopia is more like a fictional story on the surface, but of course there is a great deal of depth to this piece of literature. Utopia is set mainly as a conversation between three men: More, Hythloday, and Giles. Hythloday is arguably the most significant character in this story, as he is the one relaying all of the information about the land of Utopia to More. Hythloday went on many explorations with Amerigo Vespucci, and came across the island “Utopia” in his travels – there he had the opportunity to act almost like an anthropologist, observing and studyin...
The last important item when it comes to the Utopian system is money. There is no money in Utopia just as communism is a moneyless society. The Utopians also do not fetishize precious metals like gold and silver. In the current technological state, gold presents very little utility, and they treat it as such. What the Utopians exactly say is “But Nature granted to gold and silver no function with which we cannot easily dispense. Human folly has made them precious because they are rare.” Marx was critical of the fetishizing of metal monies and the role they overtake in the social relations of people.
Utopia achieves great universality by evincing great understanding and sympathy with all men (Surtz, vii). It presents the hope for far better things, sustained by the view that man may shape and mold himself in any chosen form, (viii) thus creating the best earthly state possible. Redfield’s text focuses on nine insights to a spiritual transformation. When all nine insights are understood, an exciting new image of human life, and a positive vision of how we can save this planet, it’s creatures and it’s beauty will be attained (Redfield). According to Redfield, upon reaching the new millennium, human culture will shift as we move toward a completely spiritual culture on earth. In order to understand where we are today, we must take ourselves back to the year 1000 and move through the millennium as we lived through it. Imagine yourself being alive in the year 1000, the Middle Ages. The first thing you must understand is that the reality of this time is being defined by the powerful churchmen of the Christian church (22). Because of their position, these men hold great influence over t...
The aim of this essay is to clarify the basic principles of Freud’s theories and to raise the main issues.
Thomas More sees physical labor as very important. Not only to survive, but so that everyone contributes to society. Idleness can be a disease. There must be a balance to work. Everybody in Utopia does some farming. Farming was considered a ver...
Utopia itself is divided into two different books, the first half of the book talks about ‘the obligations of a man of experience and integrity to play an active role in the service of a country and mankind,’ Moore puts himself into his narrative meeting a traveler called Raphael Hythloday. Hythloday is described as wise and well-travelled however, this fictional character has cruised with ‘the famed explored Amergio Vespucci.’ Vespucci was seen as a fraud to Moore and other philosophers, therefore its unclear whether Raphael Hythloday is truly reliable or not. The second half of the of the book goes into Hythloday’s tr...
The most key and predominant aspect of More’s Utopian society is the abolishment of private property. This then leads to a battle and debate over the common welfare of the people against their private interests. Raphael and by extension More, feels that society and people in general greatly benefit from the loss of private interests. The general loss of privacy in Utopia leads to a situation in which ‘everyone has an eye on you’ so that the people of Utopia are ‘practically forced to get on’ with their jobs and ‘make some proper use’ of their spare time. This system creates a city in which every single member works and contributes to society in a positive way. Under this arrangement each member is considered equal in that no one man owns greater possessions or property than another.
More's utopia was completely unexpected by him as little as five years ago. He always had utopian visions, but the utopia that was reality was different. It is important to keep visions of utopia in our minds. They give us hope and something to work toward. Even if we never reach the utopia we dream of, it can put us in the right direction for improving our