Introduction Summary:

The book begins with a short six-line poem, followed by a four-line poem and a letter of greetings from Thomas More, the author, to his friend Peter Giles. The two poems, written by Utopians, describe Utopia as an ideal state.

Thomas More was the Under-sheriff of the City of London, in the service of King Henry VIII. More's friend, Peter Giles, was a corrector at a printing press and a clerk of the city of Antwerp. The prefatory letter concerns the printing and editing of the manuscript and also tells a story of how More first learned of the Utopians.

More recalls his meeting with Raphael Hythloday, for it is Raphael who relayed the story of Utopia to More. More has simply recorded what he has heard, striving to be as accurate as possible. In this regard, Peter Giles can be of use for he was the one who first introduced More to Hythloday. In his letter, More apologizes for taking such a long time to send the manuscript to Giles‹nearly a year, when it was expected to take only six weeks. More explains that his work has kept him very busy and when he comes home very later he must devote time to his family. As a result, More has hardly any time left for himself. More is uncertain about a few small details, for example, the span of a bridge that crosses the Utopian river of Anyder. More hopes that Giles might remember the actual dimensions or perhaps for this and a few other questions, Giles might even make contact with Raphael Hythloday. Laughably, there is one major question that does need to be addressed rather urgently: More does not remember "in what part of that New World Utopia is located." The author confides that he is rather embarrassed "not to know in which ocean the island lies," especially since he has devoted so much time and energy to recounting less significant details.

There are a few individuals already prepared to go to Utopia including a theologian who would like to see the island and meet its inhabitants. He intends to ask the Pope to be made the Bishop of the Utopians. More concludes his letter expressing his hesitation to publish the work. Despite the good qualities of the work, Utopia will still be exposed to the unnecessarily fierce commentary of critics. More wonders whether it will be worthwhile in the end.

Analysis

Throughout Utopia, More alludes to the scholarly and traditional literature of his period, also referencing earlier Greek and Latin works. Almost immediately, Utopia presents itself as a book whose form is different form other works. The full title of the work attests to this: "On the best form of a Commonwealth and on the New Island of Utopia: a Truly Precious Book No Less Profitable than Delightful by the most Distinguished and Learned Gentleman Thomas More, Citizen and Undersheriff of the Illustrious City of London." This book includes several things: it presents philosophy as well as a travel narrative about a foreign place. It poses as history but it is also a fictional adventure-story. Finally, parts of Utopia read much like a parable, aiming to improve the reader with a moral education by giving examples illustrated in stories.

Just as Utopia is a complex of genres, the Introduction is a "pastiche" (collage) of different literary forms including the poem, the pictogram and the epistle. Each of these serves a distinct narrative purpose.

The first poem is a six line stanza by Utopia's poet laureate. This poem creates a pun on the word Utopia as opposed to eutopia. Utopia actually means no-place, a fantasy. Eutopia means good place. The poem describes Utopia as a eutopia and compares it to "Plato's state." In one sense, Utopia is also a response to Plato's work, The Republic. More presents his political philosophy, albeit in a very abstracted way.

A quatrain written about Utopus (the general who founded the eponymous state) follows the sextet. Neither poem bears any significant resemblance to the established lyrical forms of More's society. Indeed, the poem is translated into prose. The poem tells us that utopia was made into an island by the general, Utopus. It has subsequently become a "philosophical state." Certainly, the image of the island parallels More's Britain. Unlike its neighbors on the continental mainland, the island is militarily secure enough to forge its own identity and isolated enough to become a unique philosophical state. Moreover, the security of the island makes it safe for the citizens to traffic in commerce as participate in the trade and exchange of ideas. According to the poem, Utopia eagerly shares its ideas and adopts the best practices of other societies.

More's letter to Peter Giles combines actual people with fictional characters. This is what we would expect, considering the mix of fictional and non-fictional genres incorporated within the work. More has made himself into a character. Peter Giles is an actual friend of More's and Giles assists in the publication of Utopia. Neither More nor Giles had a friend named Raphael Hythloday. The New World remains, in 1516, largely unexplored by Europeans, but there was no "Utopia" nor had More traveled to any distant lands.

In the letter (the "epistle") to Giles, More is actually writing to the reader indirectly. Details which Giles would already know are supplied to give the reader context. This is a form of apostrophe because the speaker is addressing his intended audience indirectly. The themes of truth and virtue are very important in Utopia. Narrative accuracy certainly involves issues of truth, but the definition of truth depends upon what sort of narrative is being written: in the same way that we can judge the philosophy of the Utopians as true or false, we can judge the philosophy of Utopia as true or false. If Utopia as a travelogue, we would look to see whether its descriptions were true (i.e., accurate). On the other hand, as a work of history, Utopia would be true if it were "objective." And if we are reading Utopia as a fictional work, an adventure story or fantasy, "truth" is more a matter of consistency and believability: Do the characters sound like themselves? Is that how Utopians would really act?

The idea of public service is another major theme of this work. More is the under-sheriff of London and he serves in several other roles before he dies. Giles is a clerk for the city of Antwerp. Raphael Hythloday presents ideas regarding the individual's obligations to society. To the extent that Utopia was written to enhance the public debate on the "ideal" state, the book is an act of public service.

Finally, the idea of travel to the "New World" is an obvious theme of Utopia. We cannot travel to Utopia because it does not exist and furthermore, it is far away and the passage is dangerous. The next best thing is to receive an account of the New World from Hythloday and this is what More faithfully presents to us. There were plenty of travelogues and "accounts of the Indies"‹mostly spurious‹on the market during More's era. Utopia borrows the idea of the New World, but More does not argue that Utopia is actually a location somewhere in the actual New World.

Book One Summary:

In Book One, Thomas More describes the circumstances surrounding his trip to Flanders where he has the privilege of meeting Raphael Hythloday. This first part of Utopia chronicles the early conversations between More, Peter Giles, and Hythloday. The three men discuss a wide range of civil, religious and philosophical issues. Hythloday is renegade and iconoclastic on certain issues but he is a skilled orator. Both More and Giles think there is considerable merit in much of what Hythloday has to say. Book Two is the continuation of the conversation during which Hythloday explains the details of Utopia in full.

More visited Flanders as an ambassador of Henry VIII. Alongside a man named Cuthbert Tunstall, More toured the cities of Bruges, Brussels, and Antwerp (all in present-day Belgium). Once in Antwerp, More finds his friend Giles. After attending a Mass at the Church of St. Mary, Giles introduces Thomas More to Raphael Hythloday. Raphael is not a native Utopian; he is Portuguese. Peter explains that Raphael accompanied Amerigo Vespucci on a voyage to the New World but Raphael remained oversees when Vespucci returned to Europe. Hythloday and his companions enjoyed their continued travels and afterwards, they were reconnected with a fleet of Portuguese ships near the island of Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka, due south of India). Hythloday made his way home with these sailors. Apparently, Hythloday's visit to Utopia occurred in between his voluntary separation from Vespucci and his arrival at Ceylon.

After this rather lengthy introduction, Hythloday and More exchange greetings and the three men continue their discussion in the garden attached to More's lodging place. When he visited various regions, Raphael befriended the native inhabitants and gained their sincere friendship and trust. According to Raphael, the equatorial regions are excessively hot and there are monsters in the New World. When one continues further south, however, the climate becomes temperate again; populous cities and commercial areas emerge. Because Raphael's comparative analysis of the regions is so precise and intelligent, Peter suggests that Raphael become an advisor or counselor for a king. Raphael rejects the idea and celebrates the degree of freedom that he currently enjoys‹freedom Raphael would forfeit should he enter politics. He argues further that the other royal counselors would become jealous and would create unbearable complications. More agrees with Giles, but Raphael is resolute in his belief that he could ultimately do little in a political position.

Hythloday mentions that he has extensively traveled through Europe, encountering "arrogant, absurd, and captious judgmentsŠ once even in England." More is eager to hear Hythloday's impressions of England because the traveler spent several months there. Hythloday spent some time with the Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury, Rev. Father John Morton‹an acquaintance of More's. The traveler recounts a dinner conversation with Morton and several of Morton's assistants: Hythloday focuses more on political issues and less on the usual traveler's cultural interests. It is not long before Hythloday is engaged in a spirited albeit respectful debate on British legal practices. Hythloday learns of "the rigorous justice applied to thieves in England"‹hanging. He argues that the crime is too harsh and unjustly severe for such a small crime. He also says that the punishment will not deter thieves is they are poor and have no way to make a living. The Cardinal argues that the thieves could have become tradesmen or farmers but Raphael disputes this: there are many wounded veterans of the King's wars who can no longer become farmers or learn a new trade. The government provides no avenue of opportunity for these veterans. Raphael also argues that the British noble class enforces a system of economic efficiency. Nobles keep their tenants in poverty and reserve much of the land for non-agrarian purposes (private gardens, hunting grounds). Raphael also mentions that once a noble lord has died, the lord's retainers often become armed beggars and thieves. Raphael continues his argument with a lawyer and their debate touches upon the military valor of retainers, England's "sheep" problem, and the moral hazard of merchants who seek to develop monopolies.

The Cardinal finally interrupts Raphael and stops him from rambling. The Cardinal returns to the original topic (capital punishment) and asks what punishment Raphael would propose in place of hanging thieves. Raphael argues that Christianity has evolved from "the law of Moses" to the "new law of mercy" and that killing one another is forbidden. Raphael argues that murder and theft should not be punished in the same way; otherwise, a thief may be more inclined to kill, there being no additional penalty. Raphael suggests hard labor restoring the public works (roads, bridges) and that the thief pay restitution to the owner of the stolen property. The lawyer disagrees with this idea and says it would endanger the commonwealth, but the Cardinal says that it would make sense to try the idea as the present system has failed. The Cardinal's associates then applaud the idea as the Cardinal's own.

Raphael apologizes to More and Giles for his lengthy discourse only to draw attention to the fickle and jealous character of the Cardinal's crowd. Raphael takes this as evidence that he would not fare well with the King's courtiers. More is pleased with Raphael's story and reminded of his own education in the Cardinal's household.

Resuming his attempts to persuade Raphael to consider public service, More mentions Plato's Republic and the idea of a "philosopher-king." Since Raphael cannot be king, he should bring his philosophy to the court. Raphael cites the fact of common property in Utopia, as opposed to private property. This difference makes it difficult to enact Utopian policies in Britain. Raphael's final argument is that wise men, perceiving the folly of those in government, do well to stay clear of politics and "remain in safety themselves." Raphael does not convince More of the superiority of common property nor does the abolition of private property strike More as a good idea. Raphael reminds More that the Utopians adopted the best practices of every culture with which they came in contact. Within a short period of time, Utopians interview their guests‹travelers like Hythloday‹and learn of advances in science, nautical engineering, law and culture. At this point, More is eager to hear of the Utopians and after lunch, Raphael begins his discourse describing Utopia. This is found in Book Two.

Analysis

Raphael's discourse with More and Giles is philosophical and abstract. It is also very idealized. The conversation begins in a church, continues in a garden, and pauses for lunch. This philosophizing is a leisure activity enjoyed by three well-educated men of means. How do we reconcile this with More's confession to Giles that he has been so busy working that he has not had time to write Utopia? Indeed, More has had time to write and to invent "Utopia." The theme of public service appears in More and Hythloday's debate on the utility of philosophy. Is Raphael morally obligated to put his philosophy and knowledge to good use in the service of the King? Does royal service or political work even count as a worthy application of philosophy and knowledge?

This thematic question applies to More's career in the broadest sense. More was a lawyer who served in a variety of roles: undersheriff, ambassador, member of the King's Council, Master of Requests, Speaker of the House of Commons, High Steward of Oxford and Cambridge, and, eventually, Lord Chancellor of England. Concurrently, More wrote a number a number of philosophical works besides Utopia, contributing to the discourse of his era.

Thomas More wrote Utopia early in his career and this underscores the importance of More's argument with the fictional Raphael. After a life of public service, More was convicted of treason (on perjured evidence) and beheaded by the very king whom he defended fourteen years earlier in a work called Responsio ad Lutherum (1523). There is a strange unintended irony in Book One. At least on one point, More's fictional character proves wiser than More himself.

Raphael Hythloday is half-sage, half-fool and Book One develops both literary traditions. Raphael is clearly a man of intellect with more than a few good ideas. Nonetheless, Raphael's stories of far-off Utopia are laughably naïve and innocent. His ideas for policy are unrealistic. The account of the Cardinal's dinner parallels the courts scenes later made famous in Elizabethan drama. Hythloday has some interesting ideas but he is so wordy, so verbose that the Cardinal must interrupt him. Raphael is unable to answer a raised question without first answering other unanswered peripheral questions.

"Raphael" is the name of a guardian angel. "Hythloday" is a compound of Greek words translating to "peddler of nonsense." Thomas More does not intend for us to take Raphael or Utopia at face value. Book One is written in a style resembling the ancient ŒDialogues." In these Dialogues, intermingled real and fictional characters discussed philosophical ideas. The written work is essentially a transcript of the discussion. Raphael is so wordy that Book One hardly seems like a discussion or dialogue. It is not hard to argue that More concentrates on presenting ideas and constructing complex sentences (the original Latin work was praised as much for its syntax as for its narrative). More is less interested in telling a very good story.

Modern readers accustomed to reading novels might interpret Book One as a narrative device to build suspense. We must read through nearly half of Utopia before we reach the full description of the island. More is interested in the philosophical contemplation of European and Christian legal customs. Book One provides the context wherein More can critique the Utopian society. The abolition of private property has already become a point of contention between more and Hythloday. Conveniently, Hythloday's visit to England justifies and enables More's desire to discuss England's problems (and also pay tribute to his dearly beloved, dearly influential friend, the Cardinal Archbishop). Raphael is a fictional character and a mask. More shields himself behind Raphael and gains the safety to discuss a number of controversial ideas. Raphael presents land reform, capital punishment, and the distribution of property. On these issues, either More is silent or he takes the traditional position. More does not create Raphael as a mouthpiece for his own secret and unpopular beliefs; rather, More uses Raphael to create a discussion on issues that clearly need resolution. More may not accept Raphael's extreme and divergent opinions, but More does imply that some reform is needed.

Much like the island of Utopia, Raphael is a piece of fiction inserted in the real world. Amerigo Vespucci did travel to the New World, but it remains unclear how Raphael would have found his way from "the New World" to Ceylon, off the coast of India. The Spanish explorer Vasco Nuñez de Balboa did not reach the Pacific Ocean until 1513. In 1516, More and his contemporaries had not yet grasped the enormity of the "American continent" and so, Hythloday's story seemed geographically plausible. This same lack of precise information bespeaks the Europeans' fascination with "Utopia" and the New World. Somewhere in between India and Portugal's Atlantic coast there is more than enough room for More to invent a Utopia. This expanse of the land is an answer to the problems of property and land discussed in Book One.

Book Two (First Half) Summary:

In the first half of Book Two, Raphael describes the natural geography of Utopia and then addresses the major cities, the system of government, the social distribution of labor and responsibility, and "how the Utopians travel." Throughout Book Two, Hythloday praises the Utopian customs and fails to offer any negative criticism.

In Utopia's Introduction, the quatrain mentions that Utopia was made into an island. In book Two, Hythloday explains that the general Utopus dug through the narrow isthmus that connected Utopia to the mainland. The neighboring villagers mocked Utopus because his ambitious project seemed doomed to fail. What Utopus and his men achieved in a relatively short period of time astonished these naysayers.

The island is roughly circular in shape and its natural harbors are navigable. The straits of Utopia are dangerous with shallows and rocks. The Utopians have mapped and mastered these waters but the shallows and rocks successfully deter foreign invaders. The island has fifty-four cities sharing "exactly the same language, customs, institutions, and laws." The cities also have the same planned layout. Much of this is due to the civilizing influence of Utopus who transformed a "crude and rustic mob" into a culture of note. Amaurot, the capital city, is located at the center of the island and every year, each city sends three delegates to Amaurot to discuss common problems.

The Utopians regulate the size of each household, organizing the households into governable units. In addition to its cities, Utopia has a wealth of rural farming land. Each citizen serves a two-year stint in the country and then returns homes. As a result, the hard labor of farming is distributed across the population and everyone learns the necessary agricultural skills. Utopia enjoys a surplus of goods and the country villages and cities freely give to each other without receiving anything in exchange.

Amaurot sits on the banks of the Anyder River, the largest river in Utopia. The Anyder is pure-water near Amaurot. Upstream, the Anyder becomes salty and flows into the ocean. The Utopians built a stonework bridge and fortified the area. The houses and streets are planned in design, aesthetics, and dimensions and the model is duplicated across the island. Each house has a garden and Utopians take great pride in their gardens. There are no locks on the front doors and these doors "open easily with a push of the hand." As a result, "there is nothing private anywhere." Utopians exchange houses every ten years.

Stretching back 1760 years, the history of Utopia is well preserved. Magistrates are elected from groups of families and the highest of these magistrates serve in the Senate and elect the ruler of the people. Unless he is "suspected of trying to become a tyrant," the ruler serves for life. Most other positions are yearlong. All public business must be conducted within the public assemblies and it is a capital crime to hold such discussions elsewhere. Furthermore, in the Senate, no point is discussed on the same day during which it is introduced. These measures aim to prevent conspiracy and prevent shortsighted decision-making.

In terms of occupation, all of the Utopians (both males and females) are trained in farming, though everyone learns another trade. Children generally learn their father's trade. If a child wishes to learn another trade, the child is adopted into a different household. Individuals are also permitted to learn two trades in this manner and they can then practice whichever trade they prefer unless the city has a greater need for the other skill.

The Utopians believe in working smart, rather than simply working hard. They work only six hours each day, sleeping for eight hours, and devoting the remainder to meals and leisure. Most of the Utopian leisure activities are edifying or intellectual. They have morning lectures‹mandatory for those selected to pursue intellectual activities as a trade, but regularly attended by a good number of "ordinary" people. The equitable distribution of labor enables Utopia to produce a surplus of goods. There is no leisure class; there are no beggars, swashbucklers, religious orders, or malingerers, nor is one sex exempted from (or forbidden to) work. There are no guilds to deliberately keep the supply of goods fixed and scarce. Raphael suggests that Britain would do well by eliminating idleness. The Utopians are vigilant against the spread of vice and in their leisure time, they play a game resembling chess in which the "virtues" are lined up in battle against the "vices." The game shows how vices and virtues interact and attack one another, and how one side ultimately overpowers the other. From this game, Utopians learn how to use their virtues to overcome their vices. The Utopians select their ambassadors, priests, tranibors (highest magistrates) and the ruler himself from the order of scholars. Scholars are selected based upon their intellectual promise at an early age. Sometimes an artisan makes great progress in his own leisurely intellectual pursuits and he is promoted to join the scholars.

Raphael devotes a good amount of time to explaining the social relations of Utopians in greater detail. Utopians create large households that are extended families. Sons and grandsons often start their families within the household of their youth. The oldest parent rules each household. The family structure is not inviolable, however; when cities are over- or under-populated or when a household has fewer than 10 or more than 16 adults, persons are moved from one household to another. If the city is overpopulated, the excess population moves to under-populated cities. Each city has six thousand households. When the island is over-populated as a whole, the government recruits citizens to colonize nearby areas of the continent where the natives have plenty of uncultivated land. Either the natives adopt the Utopians' laws and customs, or they are driven off the land, by force if necessary. If any city is under-populated, colonists return to replenish the island.

Each city is divided into four equal districts and the marketplace occupies the center of the city. The head of each household offers his goods and obtains whatever his household needs. There is no exchange of money and no direct exchange of goods for "there is plenty of everything" and no reason to hoard goods or deny them to others. In the city, each block of houses has a dining hall in which the households eat together. Stewards from each hall go to the market to get food for the meals. Hence, in the cities, the Utopians eat their meals in large communal groups and not as isolated families as is the case in the countryside. As always, the Utopians seek to advance the moral education of their people‹especially the youth. The common dining halls feature brief lectures or readings followed by discussion. Young people are seated with their elders to prevent the youth from misbehaving.

In Utopia, there is no problem of traveling bands of rogues, nor is it possible for an individual to escape his civic obligations by traveling to another city. When Utopians travel, they must join in the labor of the resident citizens, otherwise they are not fed. Citizens must first get the permission of the magistrate to travel and husbands must have their wives' consent. Hythloday concludes that these traveling individuals remain just as profitable and useful to the state as if they never left. And "with the eyes of everyone upon them," the Utopians have "no wine taverns, no alehouses, no brothels, no occasion to be corrupted, no hideouts, no hangouts."

Utopia believes in storing a full year's worth of provisions as reserves. The excess supply of goods is exported to foreign lands at a reasonable price and one-seventh is donated to the poor in foreign lands. Utopians import iron, which they lack at home, and they also bring back vast quantities of silver and gold. The balance of trade is well in Utopia's favor, as they import far less than they export. Gold and silver are held in low regard upon the island. Utopians use these "precious metals" to decorate criminals, slaves, and children‹and as a result of the stigma, god and silver are never stolen or hoarded. Hence, these metals are always in great supply and are available in case of war.

The Utopians follows a keen sense of virtue and rationalism. They seek to avoid the social complications of private wealth and class structure and they rely upon an education in reason, morality, and religion to keep Utopians well behaved. Utopians believe the greatest pleasures to be those of the mind and not the body, and they devote much of their free time to these pleasures.

Analysis

In Book Two, Raphael Hythloday develops the motif of perfection. A series of images and symbols support the notion of Utopia as a good place (and Utopians as the ideal people). Garden imagery is prevalent in Book Two, presenting an allusion to the Biblical Garden of Eden. Utopians enjoy many gardens and love to garden. In symbolic terms, the Utopians enjoy a pure Eden-like life, free of many real world concerns. On a practical level, the garden imagery also reflects the agricultural skill and abundant harvests of the Utopians. The strength of the civilizations is seen in the life and vitality of its crops and vegetation.

Thomas More's combination of urban and agricultural features makes Utopia a unique and modern work. The Utopian ideal fills the cities the cities with gardens and surrounds each city with agricultural land. The land symbolizes Eden but there is certainly social commentary reflecting More's Britain. The Utopians have not constructed congested and dirty cities like London, nor have they devoted land to the wasteful pleasures of the nobility. More than Eden-like gardeners, the Utopians are "stewards" of the land and they carefully husband their resources. This connects the imagery of perfection and gardens to the themes of virtue and public services.

Besides the gardens, there are other images of perfection. Utopus constructed a "whole plan of the city" Amaurot, and the Utopians sustain this zeal for urban planning and design 1760 years later. The island is circular in shape, its cities are perfectly arranged, and the cities are divided into four equal districts. For the Utopians, equality is the visual image of perfection. Cities are the same size. Houses look the same. Each city has the same number of adults.

In considering Utopia as a philosophical treatise and Utopia as a model civilization, we find that the theme of truth becomes very complicated. There is the question of feasibility. Assuming that the Utopians' beliefs are true and morally correct, how useful is the information to More's audience? Hythloday asserts that Utopian policies could improve Britain's condition, but Utopia's condition seems unrealistically advantaged. Indeed, Utopia is described as the opposite of the real world. More than a mere "ideal," Utopia is a fictional society that has‹with the stroke of More's pen‹easily solved the actual problems of real societies.

Utopus easily cuts through the isthmus that connects Utopia to the mainland. Here, More alludes to the Greeks' failed attempts to dig a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth. This historical episode was so well known in More's time that it became a proverbial figure of speech for failure. Utopia's capital city, Amaurot, strongly resembles London. London has the Thames River and a smaller stream called the Fleet Ditch, but these are far dirtier than Utopia's Anyder River and freshwater spring. Even more significant, both the Anyder and the Thames flow in from the sea, with the city built on the riverbanks. London's bridge was built in between the city and the coast, restricting ships from traveling through the city. Amaurot's bridge is built further inland so that ships can sail the river into the city and through much of it, facilitating trade. Utopia is More's reflection on his own society. It is not entirely fictional and imagined.

The Utopians' lifestyle also presents the theme of innovation. The Utopians discover the best practices and seek to implement them whenever possible. Like More's contemporaries, the Utopians discover new lands and come into contact with new foreign ideas as a result of international commerce and trade. The Utopians have rearranged their natural landscape, creating an island. This creates a tension between God's role as creator and man's roles as innovator.

By the standards of democratic capitalism, the Utopian idea of the common life is rather objectionable. Utopia looks a lot like communism. In the struggle to attain perfection, Utopians depend heavily upon formulas of equality. Household size is regulated and individuals can be sent to other families to keep the numbers balanced. The Utopians fear the vices of sloth, greed, and pride and they take proactive measures to eliminate the possibility of vice. But a good deal of freedom is sacrificed. We are told explicitly that front doors open at the touch of a hand and there is no privacy. Sons and grandsons start their families as part of their father's household. It is impossible to take a leisurely vacation‹one must work even when traveling, and work hours are assigned by the state.

Utopia resembles 1984 and Fahrenheit 451‹novels of "dystopia" that responded to big government, totalitarianism and tyranny. Utopia resembles the Puritan commonwealth that Oliver Cromwell established in Britain in the 1650s. It is hard to credit the Utopians with virtue when their choices have been made for them. Tragically, the Utopians (once an uncivilized "mob") are civilized to the point that they remain indistinguishable from one another. They live in the same houses and wear the same clothes according to the guidelines of their planned communities.

Book Two (Second Half) Summary:

The Utopians have slaves, including prisoners of war captured in battle. The children of slaves are not held in slavery. Utopians also travel to foreign countries to purchase and enslave criminals condemned to die. Utopians who commit serious crimes are also held as slaves and they are treated most harshly. These slaves are a disgrace to the Utopians because these slaves had been given an excellent moral education but they became criminals nonetheless.

Raphael discusses a few other customs of the Utopians. They are skilled in medicine and they devote considerable time to attending to the sick. The Utopian priests also encourage euthanasia when a patient is terminally ill and suffering pain (but this can only be done of the patient consents).

Raphael discusses the marriage customs of the utopians. Women may not marry until they reach age 18 and men may not marry until they reach age 22. Because Utopians believe that sexual promiscuity makes it difficult for an individual to live a happily married life, premarital sex is illegal and severely punished. Before the marriage, the intended bride and groom are presented to one another naked, so that any "sores" or defects will be exposed and "no one is duped or deceived." The Utopian marriages last until death and divorces are rare, requiring the permission of the ruler. Adultery is grounds for divorce and is punished with harsh servitude. If an adulterer repeats the offense, the punishment is death.

The senate has no penal code and punishments are determined on a case-by-case basis. The most serious crimes are usually punished with servitude, rather than death because the society can benefit from the prisoners' labor. If these slaves are patient and if, after a long period of labor, they show that "they regret the sin more than the punishment," they are sometimes released. In adjudicating a case, the attempt to commit a crime is not distinguished from the criminal act itself‹a criminal is not redeemed by his inability to successfully complete the attempted act.

At this point, Raphael's narrative becomes somewhat rambling and he discusses a number of issues in rapid succession. The Utopians have fools and jesters to keep them entertained, but they abhor the practice of mocking people who are crippled or disfigured. It is important to be well groomed, but the Utopians consider cosmetics to be disgraceful. In the marketplaces Utopians erect statues of virtuous men who have done good things for the commonwealth. This serves as an inspiration for the citizens to live up to the standards established by their ancestors. Anyone who campaigns for public office disqualifies himself from holding any office at all, and lawyers are banned from Utopia. In court, each citizen represents himself and tells his story without legal counsel. The Utopians believe it is easier this way for the judge to determine the truth in a given case. The Utopians do not make treaties with other nations because treaties are regularly broken. Utopians consider themselves friends with a foreign people unless some harm has been done.

Regarding war, the Utopians are peaceful but they are not pacifists. When necessary, Utopians will fight to defend their interests as well as the interests of their allies. Both women and men are trained in regular military exercises so that the island is well protected. Utopians also go to war if one of their citizens is unjustly disabled or killed in a foreign nation and the guilty persons are not turned over to the Utopian authorities. Rather than fight in wars, Utopians rely upon strategy whenever possible. They often offer large rewards for the death of the enemy rulers, intending to head off a conflict before it begins‹or at the very least, sow the seeds of distrust within the enemy camp.

The Utopians often hire a nearby tribe, the Zapoletes, as mercenaries to fight in place of Utopian citizens. The Zapoletes are perversely bloodthirsty and they are eager to fight for the Utopians because the Utopians pay high wages. Often times, the Zapoletes die in war and so the Utopians do not have to pay the high rewards promised. At the same time, the Utopians regard the Zapoletes as a moral scourge and they are only too happy to "enlist these wicked men in order to use them up." Utopians will only use their own citizens as a last resort and even then, only as volunteers if it is a foreign war. But if the island should be invaded, men and women in good physical health fight to protect the commonwealth. Often times, families go to the battle lines together (only the adults, of course) for the Utopians reason that he soldiers fight harder to protect one another‹especially in hand-to-hand combat‹when family members become especially protective of one another.

The last major topic discussed concerns the religions of the Utopians. Throughout the various regions, there are a few sects devoted to ancestor worship or the worship of some celestial body. The "vast majority" of Utopians are monotheists who believe exclusively in one god as creator. The smaller sects also agree that there is one Supreme Being and they all call him Mythras, though the Utopians do not all worship Mythras in the same way.

The Utopians were very interested in what they learned of Christianity. Hythloday explains that the Utopian concept of Mythras and many of the beliefs of the Utopian religion were similar to tenets of Christianity. Hythloday also adds that the Utopians eagerly awaited the arrival of a Christian Bishop and they were debating whether they might simply appoint a bishop on their own. The Christians among the Utopians mostly remained very tolerant of the other religions and religious tolerance had long been enjoyed by the Utopians. Hythloday recounts that an overzealous Christian minister was arrested because his incendiary speech excited "riots among the people." Utopus, the conquering general, began the legacy of religious toleration. The overzealous minister was not arrested for advocating for his own religion‹he had free speech‹but when the minister began endangering the safety of others, he was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to exile. Utopus established the policy "that no one should come to any harm because of his religion" and the Utopians work hard to allow for debate and discussion. The caveat to the Utopian policy of religious toleration is that it is forbidden that anyone disbelieve in the immortality of the soul or deny that the world is ruled by providence, arguing instead that the "world is ruled by mere chance."

Analysis

The second half of Book Two covers a range of topics including slavery, military practices, and religion. More's work gives us the opportunity to analyze the Utopian society on multiple levels.

Some would argue that the Utopian institutions reveal a lack of trust in human nature. The Utopians have multiple safeguards to protect the society against the threats of tyranny, fraud and deception. Regarding treaties, the Utopians‹unlike their Old World counterparts‹no longer trust in them or sign them. Either a treaty is broken or it is written with so many loopholes that it becomes ineffective. The Utopians argue that legal and political language is consistently used to misrepresent the truth. By eliminating many of the contexts wherein truth is profitably abused, the Utopians safeguard their values. One example is the fact that Utopians ban all lawyers as "clever practitioners and sly interpreters of the law." It well worth noting the irony here, that Thomas More, a lawyer, is in fact the patron saint of lawyers. Towards the very end of Book Two, Hythloday argues that Utopia is morally superior to European societies in which the poor citizens are defrauded and disenfranchised both through "private chicanery" and "public laws." Hythloday is convinced by the Utopians' argument that a large body of law often serves to protect the interests of the powerful sometimes running roughshod over justice.

Utopia's narrative structure relies upon multiple narrators. The reader receives commentary from Hythloday and More; various political ideas are presented from a variety of sources‹classical, biblical, religious, and Utopian. This narrative strategy highlights the tension between enjoying a free philosophical exchange (in pursuit of truth) and enforcing and defending the truth once it is known. When in court, a Utopian tells his side of the story without legal defense or expert witnesses; the Utopians believe that truth is most easily ascertained when each individual gives his own argument. Nonetheless, the Utopian elders believe that the "ordinary people" are unable to understand a full body of written law. As a consequence, there remains a wide range of decision-making wherein most Utopians have a very limited role if any. Utopians withhold legal participation from the masses even as they fear the rise of tyranny. If a Utopian makes the effort of campaigning for public office, he is immediately disqualified. Granted, Utopia's society is one in which the public good dominates the private interest, but these regulatory measures also reflect a fear that legal structures might be perverted and that truth might be distorted. Despite the rigorous moral education of Utopian citizens, these safeguards and checks remain.

The Utopian philosophy is not without counterparts in classical and early modern thought. Early political thinkers agreed with the Utopian regard for justice and happiness, but there is considerable divergence within these viewpoints. The Utopians generally believe that Œthe ends justify the means.' From the Greek word telos ("end"), the Utopian philosophy could be described as teleological. The consequences of the Utopians' logical assumption are far-reaching and many of the Utopians' most objectionable customs can be traced back to this original belief.

The Utopians purchase slaves and also use slavery as a punishment for serious crime. One justification for slavery is that the potential labor of criminals should not be wasted (in execution). The Utopians believe that war is a moral tragedy that should be avoided and they loathe a neighboring tribe of treacherous backstabbing warmongers known as the Zapoletes. The Utopians employ the Zapoletes as mercenaries and have these wild warriors do their fighting for them whenever possible. The Utopian argument is that, in the end, the Zapoletes will be "used up" and this will be to the moral improvement of the region. When the Utopians are pressed to fight, however, we see that they use deceitful strategies with the precise intention of encouraging violence and distrust within the enemy camp. Zapoletes are contemptible for some of the very same traits that the Utopians seek to inspire in their enemies.

Utopian policies often disregard ideas of family and privacy. In a defensive war, it is not uncommon to find an entire Utopian family of adults fighting together. Despite the psychological trauma or absurdity of wiping out an entire family, the Utopians reason that the end product is better fighting. Troops will fight harder if they are literally defending their own kin. The family unit can become a means of defending the state. Similarly, euthanasia is encouraged but not mandated in a case where an individual is terminally ill. Likewise, there is no horror in regards to the practice of assassinating enemy leaders as a means of preventing the greater loss of life in war. Should war begin, a troupe of Utopian sharpshooters stalks the head generals as a means of quickly routing the opposition.

The Utopians have a chimera philosophy that seems composed of diverse and awkward fitting parts: their philosophy runs the gamut from the worst human violations (slavery) to policies of compassion that are well beyond the norms of modern democratic societies. Utopians are not allowed to work as animal slaughterers or butchers‹the slaves do this work‹because it is feared that such bloody labor will harden the Utopians and cause them to lose their compassion. Oddly, slavery becomes a means of achieving an end that it compromises.

More does not present Utopia as a logically cohering state, and he admits as much in the concluding letter to Peter Giles. Utopia is a hodgepodge of legal policies, economic practices, and cultural institutions that exist so that More might present a set of issues for our contemplation. The remarks on the Utopians' religious practices reveal More's narrative strategy.

The Utopians are not described as Christians, but their religion is described as a monotheistic practice very similar to Christianity. Very early in the work, we learned that the Utopians had already begun to embrace Christianity. If the Utopians were presented as irrational or unconverted pagans, it would have been difficult for More to present Utopia as a society worthy of comparative analysis. The Utopians are fairly tolerant of diverse religious practices, but they are intolerant of atheists or those who believe that there is no eternal soul or that there is no afterlife. More was no sympathizer of heretics, and he makes a distinction between the level of toleration necessary for truth to emerge and the mandates of uniformity required once the truth has been revealed. Utopus, the old Utopian general, argued that religious war would likely disadvantage the truth, as the true believers were likely to be poor fighters. But once truth is established, uniformity in compliance is expected. The Utopians hold the existence of one God as truth, and they bar any atheist from public office. The Utopians also hold a number of truths regarding how many hours one ought to work in a day, where one ought to live, and what one's house should look like. Uniformity precludes dissent and denies the possibility of amendment.

Because the Utopians have not yet settled on the precise details of God, all of their religious services use common prayers: "no prayers are devised which everyone cannot say without offending his own denomination." In 1549, (fourteen years after More's death) the Anglican Church installs its own Book of Common Prayer in accordance with the 1st Act of Uniformity. The common-ness implies inclusiveness, but Utopian practices, like those of More's society, do not tolerate the possibility of multiple or relative truths. Moreover, truth is described as something that can be pragmatically approached and conclusively determined.

Conclusion Summary:

In a final letter to his friend, Peter Giles, More discusses the initial reception of Utopia. In particular, the writer describes a certain unnamed critic who generally approved of the work yet found some of the Utopian practices absurd. More appreciates the critic who makes an effort to read carefully and pay attention to details. The form of the work Utopia should be judged separate from the content of the work and the policies of the Utopian society. More states that he does not agree with all of the Utopian practices; he has simply presented them to the reader. Finally, More argues that if his work were fictional, he would supply ample details to make this clear. More cannot attest to the truth of the work, and the reader must seek out Raphael Hythloday if more information about Utopia is desired.

Analysis

More takes a reflective tone in his final letter but the reader should be well aware that More is not telling the literal truth. He describes his work as not necessarily "a fictional presentation which would make the truth slip more pleasantly into the mind like medicine smeared with honey." At the same time, More gives the clues conforming that his work is fictional: the name Utopia means that the island is nowhere; the name of the city Amaurot means phantom; the name of the river Anyder means that there is no water; and the name of the ruler, Ademus, means that he has no people.

The simile of "medicine smeared with honey," describes Utopia as a corrective‹a book for the moral education of the reader. The fictional and invented aspects are like honey, intended to sweeten the actual object. More's responses to the critic suggest that the author does indeed have a defined sense of how his work is to be read and interpreted. Though he worries that the "honey" aspects of Utopia may discredit the work as a philosophical treatise, More remains confident that the careful reader will be able to extract the medicine and recognize the honey for what it is.

• Biography of Sir Thomas More
• About Utopia
• Character List
• Major Themes
• Short Summary
• Full Summary and Analysis
• Summary and Analysis of Introduction
• Summary and Analysis of Book One
• Summary and Analysis of Book Two (first half)
• Summary and Analysis of Book Two (second half)
• Summary and Analysis of Conclusion
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