Between Utopias Essay -- Literary Analysis, Thomas More

Although comparing one society to another does not require them to be different in government or human behavior, it does necessarily weight one’s faults against its victories to render it better or worse than the other. This comparative structure, found between Thomas More’s two books of Utopia, poses the country of Utopia opposite the broader communities of world civilization. Despite the comparison of Utopia as distinct from and morally better than widespread society, in truth Utopia is, at best, an extension. The sloth of governments abroad have led Utopians to pursue lives of group work rather than personal property. In Book I, Hythloday confronts the wealthy as "rapacious, wicked, and useless, while the poor are unassuming, modest men who work hard" (36). The duality of the claim of wealth versus work makes them appear dichotomous, not to mention cruel, and results in the desire of the Utopians to be free of not only "private property," but of laziness. Thus they partake of group labor, but wherein "every person learns a second trade, besides agriculture" (45). This appears fair and useful, especially when coupled with how "Utopians do not work very long hours, for to "exhaust himself with endless toil" is "such wretchedness, really worse than slavery" (45). Yet In Book I, Hythloday makes a positive example of the Persian Polylerites, whom, "apart from their constant work, they undergo no discomfort in living" (23). This contradiction of values is met with another: their own enslavemen t of others. Though the struggles of the poor amid the wealth of leadership motivate the Utopians to abolish money, it is not to the effect of equality. Hythloday is critical of "a solitary ruler who enjoys a life of pleasure...while all abou... ...uble with working for princes in the common world of government: "You must openly approve of the worst proposals, and consent to the most vicious policies" (35). In Utopia, while opposing the openness of the plans, do in subtle, frightful subjugations control their people in a remote society. While the character of More often argues with Hythloday in Book I for his opposition to wealth and government, by the end of Book II his primary concern is the same, glossing mindset of the loss of beautiful possessions and rule with their "splendor and majesty" (97). Although this position is deliberately focused on the monetary absence in Utopia, his listing of their observances shows acknowledgement; and while Utopia would itself never acknowledge its nearly Spartan oligarchy, between Books I and II it is clear that through comparison, its digression is anything but ideal.