Comparing Thomas More And Utopia

1578 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis of utopia

Thomas More is a humanist and creates the island, Utopia. Utopia is fictional work of Thomas More.

This island is a reflection of England and an indirect message saying, “look at what you become. This

nation consisted of people that were idle (sloth).” Thomas More is unable to challenge King Henry VII

to change England, therefore he makes Utopia. In this island, idleness is inappropriate for humans.

Humans are always preoccupied to a certain degree. More balances the work and leisure life in Utopia.

He explains the lifestyle of the occupation sector and points out that there are some people that are

exempt from working. But, there are reasons to why they do not have to work. In cases like this,

citizens must focus on their goal otherwise …show more content…

This is the topic for my essay.

Cockayne, monks live their lives in luxury and do not provide for the public. They eat food that’s

extravagant, such as fish and red meat. The monks also have sexual relationships with women and as a

result they have many wives. Forming sexual relationship is against religious values. Monks are

indulged by attraction. Contrasting, to the religious figures in Utopia, they help people. For instance

monks tend to citizens when they were sick, repair roads, clean ditches, re-build bridges, transport

commodities to the city by a wagon. More considers living lives with luxury atrocious and an unhappy

life because providing to the public is where real happiness is. Also, if many good deeds are done a

person is sent to Paradise after death. In Utopia, the monks live their lives for the public and never

boast about their deeds. Also, sexual relationships are refrained. In Cockayne, not only did monks

display sloth but so did the citizens. No work is done by people and they also lived their lives in luxury

such as eating good food and consuming alcohol. Paradise is mentioned to be boring because all

Paradise has is nature, only fruits and water to consume. Where else, Cockayne is more

Show More
Related

  • Private and Corporate Vocations in Utopia by Thomas More

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Saint Benedict: Father of Western Monasticism

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    We live in a fallen world filled with evil desires, temptations, and idols. Many believed that if one desires to be as holy and as close to God as possible then they must distance themselves from sin. This involves putting aside worldly desires and possessions since anything of this fallen world is sinful. This calling brought many people to live simplistic lives alone. However, around fourth century a man named Pachomius founded a place where people with this similar interest could live together, known as a monastery (Benedictine Abbey of Christ in the Desert). This way of living became very appealing not only for spiritual pursuits but also for the pursuit of knowledge. Outside of monasteries the literacy rate was extremely low. For the most part only monks knew how to read and write. For these reasons monasteries began to be established all over Europe. However, with so many of them styles and rules became very different. There were many different kinds of rule that separated monasteries fro...

    Read More

  • Analysis: The Dark Ages

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Dr. Osman’s lecture and in Life and Miracles of St. Benedict, monasteries were portrayed as places for people to escape the harsh times and live together worshipping God. In The Dark Ages, the narrator discusses how many nuns and monks would try to escape because they were forced to go there, some even going as far as scaling the walls of their convent or monastery. These holy places offered many people the escape and religious freedom that they craved, but not everyone loved the strict life that monks and nuns lived. (The Dark Ages, “Marriage of Monks and

    Read More

  • Comparing Two Utopias: Jim Jones' Utopia and Aldous Huxley's Utopia

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    In our attempt to achieve the "perfect society" in which everyone is happy we have failed to realize that happiness means something different for everyone, and that severe contradictions will destroy a so called "perfect society". Webster's dictionary defines a Utopia as, "An ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects" (696). A Utopia symbolizes a society perfect in every way for everyone. In the real world we must endure many hardships: disease, poverty, violence, natural disasters, and so on. In an effort to put an end to all of these detriments to existence people strive to create Utopias. Novelist Aldous Huxley, in his novel Brave New World, describes a fictional utopia. Huxley's utopia has many problems that are realized by some of the characters in the book. For these characters the morally deprived world of conditioned people in which they live is revealed to be in fact a dystopia or an anti-utopia. In reality as well as fiction utopias are often attempted. However, as is true in the utopia described by Aldous Huxley, real-life utopias often fail as well. Jim Jones, the leader of the People's Temple, endeavored to create a utopia during the 1960's and 70's based on equality and social justice. The People's Temple met it's ultimate demise when, under the orders of Jim Jones himself, the mass suicide/murder of all the members of Jones' Guyana Community occured. Jim Jones's and Aldous Huxley's societies represent two dystopias with both similarities and differences.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of The Early Christian Monk

    902 Words  | 2 Pages

    Monks are known to live in seclusion and to focus their mind on spirituality. Yet, there is more to their lives than just that. Early Christian monks strived to protect Christianity. Christians during this time were being persecuted for their religion. Many were in danger of pagans whose religion maintained a stronghold on theirs. In order to protect the faith, monks tried to get people to remain resilient in their faith. Monks wanted ideas like this to be passed down to other fellow Christians. That is why the intended audience from the Early Christians Lives is fellow Christians. Early Christian monks stressed the idea of having faith in God, so that fellow Christians who have faith would be protected from enemies, that certain situations

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Barbara O Brien's Feeding The Buddha

    2377 Words  | 5 Pages

    Buddhism expert, Barbara O’Brien’s article called “Feeding the Buddha” explains many interesting rituals that Buddhists still do today. She explains that the most common and oldest ritual in Buddhism is the offering of food to monks. The offering of food reminds the people who practice Buddhism not to be greedy or selfish. The first Buddhist monks were homeless since they did not build monasteries. They would beg for food and the only thing they owned was their robe and the bowl they would eat off of when they received their food. Food offerings to monks is what supports them.

    Read More

  • Monasticism

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    Deep within the trees little hooded men walk along a path to meditate and pray dressed in brown robes tied with nautical rope. They dwell in silence and live a life of celibacy. This is what most of think of when we hear the word monk. Throughout the years, monks have always been people of intrigue. They live a different lifestyle than most. They live a life of seclusion far from the mores of modern society, which often makes people ponder who these people really are and why they choose to participate in such a foreign religious movement. This paper will attempt to unravel the mysteries of this peculiar movement of by researching it's origin, the true meaning of a silent lives, and how key leaders have helped to develop it one of the most popular movements in the history of Christianity. A movement called Monasticism.

    Read More

  • Literary Utopian Societies

    1741 Words  | 4 Pages

    Yet another famous Utopian society that appears to thrive on the surface is that of Sir Thomas More’s Utopia. More’s society was ...

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Faith In Matthew Lewis's The Monk

    1308 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Matthew Lewis’ The Monk, a novel where a nun ends up pregnant, a friar rapes a child, and a sister escapes to engage in sexual escapades, it is illustrated that some people are better off out of the monastic life than

    Read More

  • Comparing More’s Utopia and Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy

    2162 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout history many visionaries had glimpsed a world of new human culture, yet no way to create such a world had been achieved. Communism had become a tragedy. Sir Thomas More, author of Utopia, and James Redfield, author of The Celestine Prophecy, share many of the same ideas describing a new way of life. Written in 1516, More’s Utopia speaks about visions of a humanistic way of life. Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy, written almost five centuries later in 1993, reinforces the ideas of the Renaissance. Can this spiritual common sense become the model of the next century?

    Read More

  • Essay On Utopia

    777 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... world. Everyone would live, act, and look the same in this society. I don’t agree with Plato’s or Mores theory because I don’t think a person should work and achieve a nice home and have to switch houses with someone that might not have a nice as place as what I had. I agree with Lucian because if you work harder than someone else then shouldn’t get the same amount of money as them. Whatever job they do is how much money they should get not everyone gets the same amount. People could not think for their selves because it was dictated to them. After figuring out about this society, they are not perfect. They have some good things in their society like you don’t have to pay for anything or you go to the hospital without any fees or copays. In the end, Utopia will always be a different society that everyone would want to live in but hate it when they did. (More, 2011)

    Read More

  • Utopia by Thomas More

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    However while this indeed does benefit society as a whole one must question whether it benefits its members and their own personal happiness. Certainly More’s Utopia benefits its people in ...

    Read More

  • Thomas More’s Utopia and Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World

    2373 Words  | 5 Pages

    Thomas More’s Utopia and Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World , are novels about societies that differ from our own. Though the two authors have chosen different approaches to create an alternate society, both books have similarities which represent the visions of men who were moved to great indignation by the societies in which they lived. Both novels have transcended contemporary problems in society , they both have a structured, work based civilization and both have separated themselves from the ways of past society. It is important when reading these novels to focus on the differences as well as the similarities. The two novels differ in their views of love, religion, and the way to eliminate social classes. These differences seem to suggest that if we do not come closer to More’s goal in Utopia, we will end up in a society much like that of Huxley’s Brave New World.

    Read More

  • Differences Between the Laity and Monastic Worshippers Within Buddhist Tradition

    1759 Words  | 4 Pages

    The differences between the laity and monastic worshippers within Buddhist tradition are distinguished by the extent to which these two groups are willing to follow the middle-way as taught by Buddha. Typically, in order to have a functional Buddhist society, there must be the devout, and those who support the devout, giving aid in the form of food, monies, shelter, transportation, etc. The devout who sacrifice the purity of a true monastic lifestyle in order to support the community (who in turn are the recipients of merit or punya; a bank of ‘good’ actions tied to ‘good’ karma) (Gethin 101), from the monastic worshippers, are called the laity; upasakas (men laity) and upasikas (women laity). The monastics, or Bhikkhus (monks) and Bhikkhunis (nuns) are responsible for accepting the devotion shown by the laity, reciprocally, the laity are obliged to maintain devotion for “in order to be free from guilt […] the bases of a clear conscience [is] generosity and good conduct” (Ibid 83) . Good conduct is the realization and active partaking of the “eight significant dimensions [the Noble Eight-fold Path] of one’s behavior” (Ibid 82), which constitute right (in all actions of) understanding, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration (although not limited to, rather expanded upon realization). The importance of a laities duty within society is to support, through their livelihood, the only traditional Buddhist teaching available to them (Ibid 92). In order to adapt a Buddhist ideology, some conducts were left out of lay worship to support a less strenuous spiritual life (putting the emphasis on merit earned) in pursuit of maintaining a functional community. The purpose, to establish the five lay percepts ...

    Read More

  • Comparing Plato's Republic and Thomas More's Utopia

    2965 Words  | 6 Pages

    The trite cliche that no man is an island applies equally well to political philosophies. Thomas More's Utopia was written both as a product of his time, and also as a product of a previous time--that of Greek civilization, especially around 380BC, when Plato's Republic was written. The similarities between the two books are not limited to them both being a dialogue. Both contain a description of the perfect state, although they do this for different reasons and they arrive at different types of perfection.

    Read More

More about Comparing Thomas More And Utopia

Open Document