Utopia Essay
Utopia Essay
Utopia Essay
Utopia Essay
11En7
James Lian
Utopia Essay
11En7
More juxtaposes the living and working conditions of 16 th century Europe against
the fictional idea of Utopia to explore and contrast the values represented from
both societies. When Utopia was introduced in book 2, the society and culture
seemed appealing at first but as the book progressed began to portray dystopic
properties, exposing the flaws within the English social order. Book 1 mirrors
Mores own society of poverty, occupational insecurity and poor living conditions
whereas book 2 displayed a direct contrast to this, idealizing Mores desire for
fairness and equality that is expressed through the hyperbolic setting of Utopia.
This is evident in the extreme efficiency of the Utopian working structure where
citizens comply with six hour working days and employ themselves well in
their spare hours. With a 100% employment rate and productive use of spare
time, discrimination, idleness and the leisure class is eliminated. The unfeasibility
of this mocks the wide-scale impoverishment and corruption in the working
structure of Mores time. More further ridicules the unequal conditions of the
English lifestyle by using the motif of perfection to construct a communist
democracy depiction of Utopia. In this theoretical land, human desires such as
family, freedom and privacy are sacrificed for perfect living and working
conditions as seen by their near robotic system of their days split into sections
and the option to be adopted into a family if you choose to do pursue a trade
other than your fathers. The oversimplification of society in the Utopic system
satirises the contradicting standards of the living and working conditions of
Mores time.
Sir Thomas More wrote the satirical novel Utopia to attack and criticise aspects
of his current society. Using verisimilitude to write without fear of prosecution,
radical and unheard of ideas were presented through the mouths of characters
that possessed antithetical names to preserve their fictional identity. Through his
use of caricature, hyperbole, juxtaposition and other techniques, More is able to
question the values represented from the unbalanced power of the social social
structure, the law and judicial system, and living and working conditions of the
citizens during 16th century Europe.