Utopia Of More Essays - Utopian Fiction, Utopian Novels, Idealism

Utopia Of More In his famous work Utopia, Sir Thomas More describes the society and culture of an imaginary island on which all social ills have been cured. As in Plato's Republic, a work from which More drew while writing Utopia, More's work presents his ideas through a dialogue between two characters, Raphael Hythloday and More himself. Hythloday is a fictional character who describes his recent voyage to the island of Utopia. Throughout the work, Hythloday describes the laws, customs, system of government, and way of life that exist on Utopia to an incredulous and somewhat condescending More. Throughout the work, Hythloday presents a society organized to overcome the flaws of human nature. This society has been carefully thought out by More?as the author of the work?to help avoid the problems associated with human nature. Individual human appetites are controlled and balanced against the needs of the community as a whole. In other words, More attempts to describe a society in which the seven deadly sins are counterbalanced by other motivations set up by the government and society as a whole. I believe that by providing the answer to the timeless question of overcoming man's inherent evils in such a way More creates a perfect society to be modeled after. Many of the ideals in More's Utopia are, as the name implies, based on ideal situations and not reality. They would work well in a civilization of automatons, but would be abolished quickly in a human situation. Nevertheless, we can apply the ideals held by the Utopians to our own societies since the ideals themselves are attainable even if a perfect society is not. More seems to think that the seven deadly sins will be fairly easy to overcome. Pride, for instance, is counterbalanced in several ways in his social system. For instance, he makes sure that all people wear the same clothing, except that the different genders wear different styles, as do married and unmarried people. More also makes individuals fairly interchangeable within the social system?one carpenter, for instance, seems to be more or less like another to him, and can find work anywhere that carpenters are needed. He also says that the Utopians encourage their citizens to think of the good of the state as a whole in addition to their individual good. Without a sense of individuality as highly developed as the one to which modern Americans are accustomed, pride should present less of a problem to the Utopians. Gluttony is another deadly sin that Hythloday claims is easily overcome. According to him, the source of gluttony is fear of a future lack of something, especially a necessity of life such as food. As Hythloday explains to More, why would he be likely to seek too much, when he knows for certain that his needs will always be met? A man is made greedy and grasping either by the fear of need (a fear common to all creatures) or else by pride (in man alone), which thinks it glorious to surpass others in superfluous show. "This kind of vice has no place at all in the ways of Utopians." (More 59) Others of the deadly sins are to be overcome, as are pride and gluttony, by encouraging the practice of their corresponding virtues. Sloth is to be overcome by requiring the practice of industry; covetousness by the practice of generosity (in addition to the abolition of private property); envy through respect; pride through humility; gluttony through modesty; and lechery through continence (the Utopians punished extra- or pre-marital sexual intercourse harshly). Wrath, which seems to be the lone exception, is to be treated not through the general practice of its corresponding virtue, peacemaking, but by removing the things that enrage people in the first place. Though we can not rid our society of these sins, we can use More's methods to prevent them. Some of the ideals presented in Utopia are abundantly present in today's society. These include having a commodity in one culture be totally worthless in another, communal living within cities, and euthanasia as a means of release from burden. There are commodities in the world today that are totally worthless in America, but serve as a main staple in many other countries. In Utopia, gold was the most worthless metal. It wasn't as strong as iron and was seen as a sign of servitude. Having large tracts of land is a sign of wealth and clout in our country, but in Japan, where land is scarce having large amounts of land is socially seen