In the book Utopia the country of Utopia is a true commonwealth where there is no private property or financial classes. Utopia is a fictional country with a society in which everything is shared equally and there is no want.
In Utopia, “Among [the Utopians] virtue has its reward, yet everything is shared equally, and all men live in plenty” (More 1.38).By creating a place that has no money or private property More undermines the institutions of Tudor England by getting at the problem of social injustices having to do with private property (Brayton).Stevenson says, “With radical simplicity the Utopians avoid the ills of Europe: all private property is abolished. Pungent descriptions of crime, poverty, unemployment, ostentatious luxury, and idleness in Book I give way in Book II to Hythloday's eulogy of a country which is literally a ``commonwealth,'' where there are no beggars, no gentlemen, no money”(Stevenson). The main tension in the book Utopia is from the disagreement about everything having to do with private property (Phillips).
In Utopia there are many well thought out solutions to problems such as taxation, food shortage, stability of marriage, religious tolerance, and greed (Bender).Primary education is provided for everyone. Also, every citizen must work on the land for at least two years to prevent food shortages (Forward).Utopians only need money for emergencies such as war because they can take all they need from shops at will. They even use gold to make their chamber-pots (Forward).
Houston says, “Utopia is organized entirely along rational lines: there is an absence of sin; children are brought up in common; a system of slavery operates; and one city is exactly the same as another, so that the Utopian is everywh...
... middle of paper ...
... Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Houston, Chloe. "Utopia, dystopia or anti-utopia? Gulliver's Travels and the Utopian mode of discourse." Utopian Studies 18.3 (2007): 425+. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 13 Jan. 2014
More, Thomas. Utopia. New Haven: Yale UP, 1964. Print.
Phillips, Joshua. "Staking Claims to Utopia: Thomas More, Fiction, and Intellectual Property." Material Culture and Cultural Materialisms in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Ed. Curtis Perry. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2001. 111-138. Rpt. in Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 140. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Stevenson, Kay Gilliland. "Utopia: Overview." Reference Guide to English Literature. Ed. D. L. Kirkpatrick. 2nd ed. Chicago: St. James Press, 1991. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
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.
it should be learnt that the search for „utopia‟ is a contemplative one, and can never be
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.
More, Sir Thomas. Utopia. 1516. . Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. 2 vols. New York: Norton, 2000, 1: 1765-1771.
Utopians work for the commonwealth and in result no one worries about hunger or payment, “products of each household are taken to designated houses there and each kind of goods is separately stored in a warehouse. From then each head of household goes to get whatever he and his household need” (More 1713). This system allows Utopians to prosper because if one household does not do well that year and another does well, this results in a balanced scale, this system is seen in America today also known as government assistance. Subjects on the other hand have to work and pay taxes to their ruler, this results in his prosperity and the different groups based on their income, “People, thus, cannot persist in a state of anarchy and without a ruler who keeps them apart” (Khaldun 1732). Utopians have multiple rulers who keep the peace and expect no pay while subjects have a single ruler who relies on his subjects to prosper.
The Utopia Reader defines the word utopia as “a nonexistent society described in detail and normally located in time and space.” (p.1) I would best define utopia as a fictional dream- paradise land where everything is peaceful, perfect and all runs smoothly. There is no crime disease, or pain. People are happy, kind and fair and have each other’s best
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...
Utopias often describe the ideal society as a perfect harmony between male and female, black and white, rich and poor.
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.
More, Sir Thomas. Utopia: A New Translation, Backgrounds, Criticism. Ed. and trans. Robert M. Adams. Toronto: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1988.
Much like Oceania, Utopia stives off the unity of it’s people. To them, a commonwealth is key to a functioning society. Whereas one might argue that Utopia is filled with satisfied and content people, we as readers can’t actually know that. All information that the reader receives is from Hythloday, an outsider who grew up in a vastly different culture. With this in mind, if you re-evaluate Utopia from a different perspective, certain elements start to resemble Dystopian
An impractical scheme for social improvement. This is the third definition of the word utopia in the Mirriam-Webster dictionary. Anatole France says it best with this quote regarding utopian societies, „Without the Utopias of other times, men would still live in caves, miserable and naked. It was Utopians that traced the lines of the first city· Out of generous dreams come beneficial realities. Utopia is the principle of all progress, and the essay into a better future.„ The world has been constantly changing over time, new ideas pave paths that lead to better living. Most of the ideas are expressed through science fiction stories written by authors looking to change the world in some way or another. Authors begin with an idea, and then move towards placement of thought and scheme into somewhat of a reasonable reality. Authors such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Octavia Butler use the stories they write as ways to express their problems that they have with the present world. Advances in the present day world can only be reached through dreams and desires. These dreams and desires come to life as authors present their ideas on paper.
More, Sir Thomas. "Utopia." The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Vol 1. Ed. David Damrosch. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., 1999. 637-706.
Each person has their own vision of utopia. Utopia means an ideal state, a paradise, a land of enchantment. It has been a central part of the history of ideas in Western Civilization. Philosophers and writers continue to imagine and conceive plans for an ideal state even today. They use models of ideal government to express their ideas on contemporary issues and political conditions. Man has never of comparing the real and ideal, actuality and dream, and the stark facts of human condition and hypothetical versions of optimum life and government.
Because they are described in a detailed manner, Utopia book itself seems to be enough to be a blueprint for the future. However, Thomas More clearly stated that he just wishes Europeans to follow some good qualities of the Utopian society—“there are many things in the Utopian commonwealth that in our own societies I would wish rather than expect to see” (97)—because he himself knows that it is impossible for any country to be like Utopia. This is apparent, because Utopia is possible on the premise that if every factors comes perfectly to create this ideal society. Even the geography has to contribute to this premise as Hythloday explains the geography of Utopia as the place where stranger cannot enter without one of them (39). Moreover, from diligent and compassionate Utopians’ characteristics and their ways of life, they seem to be successful in reaching the fullest of every aspects of their life including physical, intellectual, social, spiritual, and emotional, when it is hardly possible to even have one person like that in real