This content is from Wikipedia. We do not consider this content professional or citable. Please use your discretion when relying on it. GradeSaver also offers a professionally written study guide by one of our staff editors.

The meaning of the work

One of the most troublesome questions about Utopia is Thomas More's reason for writing it. Some of the ideas in it, such as the ease of divorce, euthanasia and both married priests and female priests, seem to be polar opposites of his beliefs and those expected of the devout Catholic that he was. The concept of religious toleration seems to particularly jar with the information we have about him as Lord Chancellor; that he was a keen persecutor of heretics^{[citation needed]}, i.e. Protestants. Similarly, the criticism of lawyers comes from a writer who, as Lord Chancellor, was arguably the most influential lawyer in England.

Also the communistic life style of a Utopian is a strange one coming from a rich landowner, though maybe influenced by the Spanish colonization of the Americas, which was bringing to European ears tales of ideal civilizations at about this time, such as the communistic Inca Empire.

Utopia is often seen as a satire and there are many jokes and satirical asides such as how honest people are in Europe, but these are usually contrasted with the simple, uncomplicated society of the Utopians. Some of the religious concepts, such as women as priests, were proposed by Protestants such as William Tyndale and More may be including the ideas in order to ridicule them.

The other option is that More agreed with the ideas he was propounding. The method of making a story about an imaginary place told by an imaginary man has the effect of distancing More from his radical political thoughts. Apart from Utopia meaning "Noplace" several other lands are mentioned: Achora meaning "Nolandia", Polyleritae meaning "Muchnonsense", Macarenses meaning "Happiland" and the river Anydrus meaning "Nowater". These names are designed to emphasise the illusory nature of the work and Raphael's last name, Hythlodaeus meaning "dispenser of nonsense" helps to discredit his words among those who get the joke.

The name Raphael, though, may have been chosen by More to remind his readers of the archangel Raphael who is mentioned in the Book of Tobit. In that book the angel guides Tobias and later cures his father of his blindness. While Hythloday may suggest his words are not to be trusted, Raphael meaning "God has healed" suggests that Raphael may be opening the eyes of the reader to what is true. The suggestion that More may have agreed with the views of Raphael is given weight by the way he dressed; with "his cloak was hanging carelessly about him"; a style which Roger Ascham reports that More himself was wont to adopt. Furthermore, more recent criticism has questioned the reliability of both Gile's annotations and the character of "More" in the text itself. Claims that the book only subverts Utopia and Hythloday are possibly oversimplistic.

The communist views may seem out of place over three hundred years before Karl Marx re-proposed them, but there were similar communistic views expressed in the Bible. One must be careful when referring to communism in Utopia, however - the differing historical contexts mean that Marx and More would think of property in differing ways.

And all that believed were together, and had all things common.

They sold possessions and chattel, and parted those things to all men, as it was need to each.

Acts 2:44-45, Wycliffe translation

This refers to the early Church in Jerusalem, rather than to society as a whole, and did not involve compulsion, as in Utopia, but it may have been influential in More's political views. Whatever Thomas More's purpose or actual opinion of his Utopian work the final sentence of Utopia seems to make it clear that it was probably not meant to be considered as wholly satirical.