FREE ESSAY ON UTOPIA (THOMAS MOORE)

UTOPIA (THOMAS MOORE)

In his book Utopia, Thomas More examines a society that seems to be the ideal living
situation for human beings. The main thesis of Utopia is his solution to many of the
problems that are being faced in English society in the early 16th century.
In forming his ideas for the country of Utopia, More points out many of the problems that
he sees in English society. One of the most striking examples of English social problems
that More points out is the punishment of thieves. In England, thieves are punished with
death. There is no distinction between the severity of crimes in the justice system and a
man who steals a loaf of bread is given the same sentence as a man who kills. According
to More, this method of dealing with thieves is both unjust and socially undesirable.
(More, 44) More sees the system of capital punishment to be unfair to the perpetrator and
by no means an effective deterrent to the crime of theft.
In order to prevent theft, More feels that the people need to be given a way to exist
that alleviates the need to steal. He says  ...no penalty on earth will stop people from
stealing, if it's their only way of getting food. (More, 44) This argument seems to be a
direct attack on the English class system. Because English society is made up of mainly
two classes, the wealthy and the peasantry, it seems next to impossible to make a society
in which all people are able to exist comfortably. More points out that people are
compelled to steal because of their environment. In England in the 16th century, many
peasant farmers were being driven from their land because wealthy land owners were
turning cultivated land into pastures in order to raise more sheep, which in return the
wool would produce a lager profit than the crops yielded from the land. More describes
this process as follows; Each greedy individual preys on his native land like a malignant
growth, absorbing field after field and enclosing thousands of acres in a single fence.
Result-hundreds of farmers are evicted. (More, 47) Without land, people have no means of
supporting themselves and are forced to either turn to begging and lose all of their self
respect or steal to survive and More says theft comes easier to a man of spirit.(More,
48) More sums up his feeling on the matter by saying Thus, a few greedy people have
converted one of England's greatest natural advantages into a national disaster. (More,
48)
When examining the problems of English society, More points out that another of the main
contributing factors is the centralized kingship of the country. More says, it is
generally agreed that a king can do no wrong, however much he may want to, because
everything belongs to him, including every human being in the country.... (More, 61)
Because the king has so much power over his country and his land, there is nothing to
assure that the people under his command can lead happy and healthy lives.
One of the main points More focuses on in Utopia is the kings powers and how he uses
them. Kings have the ability to make war, but More questions why anyone would want to go
to war in the first place by saying I don't see how it can be in the public interest to
prepare for war, which you needn't have unless you want to, by maintaining innumerable
disturbers of the peace-when peace is so infinitely more important. (More, 46) Kings have
the power to send their people off to fight and lose their lives perhaps because he just
feels like war or because he is land hungry. More feels that the kings should simply
focus on the land and subjects he has rather than dividing his attention between his
duties and his ambitions. He also feels that what kings fail to realize is that they are
creating crime and then punishing people for the wrong doing. By allowing war to occur,
they are creating an environment of lower moral standards in their kingdom. People are
hungry and since the king is so wrapped up in his petty war he is too busy to realize
that his people have to resort to theft in order to survive. Instead he punishes them for
theft and continues his campaign for more land. More feels that being a king is a full
time job. He asks of a king why do you suppose they made you king in the first place? Not
for your benefit, but for theirs. (More, 61) A king is not supposed to keep his people
poor in order to maintain peace, for those who are not content with their environment are
more likely to rebel against their leader than those who are happy and healthy. More
believes a true king is one who leads the rich and prosperous, not one who resorts to
reducing his subjects to poverty in order to keep them in check. (More, 61-62)
As an answer to the various problems seen with English society, More gives a complete
description of an ideal society which he refers to as Utopia. More's model of Utopia
seems to be an early model for a communistic society. It shuns almost all aspects of the
English capitalistic society alluding to the idea that under this system there will never
be social harmony. 
In Utopia, there is no private property. Everything is owned by everyone and there is no
need for anyone to want more that another person because everyone in the society works
together to supply ample provisions for the whole community. More gives one example of
this by describing the agricultural system of Utopia. The Country of Utopia is not
completely agrarian, but all inhabitants must contribute to the agrarian aspect of the
culture. Every person in the community must work for two years on the farms of the
country which ensures that there is always an ample supply of food for the people. (More,
70-71)
Once a persons term of agrarian labor is completed, he is taught a useful skill, whether
it be masonry, blacksmithing or wool refinery. Many people follow in the same trade as
their family members, but there is no law that says a person cannot learn another trade
and every effort is made to accommodate the person while they learn a trade from another
person. Because there is no class system in Utopia, a person is not restricted to the
trades they may practice and everyone, women included, is educated equally. If a person
is of superior intellect, they may obtain permission to excuse themselves from manual
labor in order to continue to refine their minds. (More, 75-77)
All people of Utopia are given the same provisions to ensure equality. Everyone wears the
same clothing and are given the same quality of food. Material wealth is not seen as
important, and in fact items such as gold and silver are used to ornament slaves rather
than show privilege. If a person does become greedy and resorts to theft, they are not
put to death, but rather are enslaved. Utopians feel that a man does more good alive than
dead and therefore their criminals are put to work to improve society.
There is not one ruler in Utopia, but rather a system of elected persons who ensure the
welfare of their community. This eliminates the dictorial kingship system and allows
people to voice an opinion in their community affairs. There is no monetary value placed
on anything so if a person desires something he is granted it. More says that no living
creature is naturally greedy, except for fear or want-or in the case of human beings,
from vanity. (More, 80) The English idea of private property and wealth is completely
eliminated creating a monochromatic existence. Because everyone in Utopia is granted
everything equal, there exists no concept of superiority and those elected officials are
there to assure that things remain equal.
Utopians do however declare war, but not without good reason. Utopians engage in war
merely to avenge wrongdoing to themselves or their allies. However, unlike the English,
Utopians almost never engage in the battles themselves. They hire soldiers to fight for
them because war would risk the lives of Utopian citizens and nothing is worth the death
of a Utopian. (More, 110-111)
More also points out that the main purpose of Utopians is pleasure. They work as little
as possible to ensure they have adequate provisions and spend the rest of their time
expanding their minds and maintaining their health, for without a healthy body how can
one truly experience pleasure? Unlike England, everyone in Utopia is allowed to feel
pleasure, not just the wealthy. (More, 95-98)
Thomas More seems to have a good idea of what the perfect society would be like, however
whether it would really work is another matter. Whether greed is a product of capitalism
or not is still a question, but it does exist and people are driven to accumulate wealth.
England may have been a society that strictly enforced a class system and was driven by
capitalism, but could a society really survive under More's model?