Firstly, Utopia’s cities, all “identical in language, customs, institutions, and laws,” are all exactly alike, and all are built using the same ground plan and architectural styles (More, 32). This conformity, juxtaposed with today’s societies’ penchant for tall buildings and competitive designs, provides little hope for artistically-minded individuals searching for creative freedom in a perfect world. Art is looked down upon and seen as unnecessary, only adding to Pride, a hideous vice (More, 84). Furthermore, each Utopian wears the same style of clothing, regardless of age; however, styles may vary depending on gender or marital status (More, 36-37). Also, each person is given a single cloak, which they wear throughout the year for seven years; they must make use of this thin cloak in winter without any other means of covering besides the clothes they already wear underneath (More, 40). Therefore, the government of Utopia provides its people with little else than the bare minimum to survive the cold, a hardship that citizens of Russia, London, and Alaska would no doubt find deplorable. The lack of private property, reeking of communism in its most basic form, would also be disagreeable to those living in democratic countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and the United States (“Paradise Dreamed”).
Secondly, in this male dominated society, men are given high positions of authority, forcing less powerful males, children, and specifically women to serve them. “Wives are subject to their husbands” in Utopia, a value which has slowly worn out of style in nations where women’s liberation has progressed, expressly in the United States and the United Kingdom (More, 41; “Paradise Dreamed”). Utopian wives and females are expected to cook every night for large masses of people, for “planning the meal, as well as preparing and cooking the food, is carried out by the women alone” (More, 43). When calculated, these women must be the chefs to thirty families which contain at least thirteen adults. Therefore, 390 persons, not counting females under eighteen, males under twenty-two, and slaves must be fed each night by the women of the syphogranty (Adams, 43). Expected to cook without any sort of modern electric or gas appliance, these women are given a nearly impossible task, which would wear on even today’s professional chefs. Finally, on the evening of the “Last-feast”, children and women are made to kneel before their male superiors and confess their sins and beg for forgiveness (More, 80). This act of putting oneself below another individual, especially a man, would be scoffed at by most women and hardly taken seriously by most of today’s audiences.
The third and most interesting dystopian aspect of Utopia is its contradictory social and moral system. Primarily, the notion of “social equality” is completely destroyed as a class system is set in place based on education. This special group of men holds in its ranks “learned men,” who are then chosen to stand as ambassadors, priests, tranibors, or the prince (More, 39). Furthermore, “first consideration goes to the sick” when distributing food, further proving that another section of the populace is better treated than its regular citizens, so much so that the majority of the city populations agree that they would rather spend their meal times in a hospital rather than their own homes (More, 42). Following the preferred treatment of the patients, the aforementioned learned folk are then considered before anyone else (More, 42). At the same time, when dinners are served in homes, the older members of the household are served “with the best food”. Note that the word “best” is used rather than “first,” suggesting that all other persons dining are forced to scrounge for the next best portion (More, 44). There is a clear distinction of class as food, the world’s most valuable resource, is distributed among the social elite before its common citizens (Forward). This contradiction of equality would anger most modern people, for allowing exceptions and excuses when a clear profession of equality stands could result in anarchy and revolution (“Paradise Dreamed”).
Moreover, Utopians contradict their value of life by urging the sick and old to commit assisted suicide (Forward). If an individual is suffering from an “incurable, but excruciatingly and continually painful” disease, a committee of priests and public officials come to their side and remind him that he is unable to continue functioning as a normal citizen: he is “a burden to himself and to others” (More, 60; Adams, 60). This sort of deadly persuasion would seem disgusting and immoral by today’s standards when paralleled with issues such as euthanasia and nursing home abuse.
The fourth highly flawed aspect of More’s Utopia is that of the extremely rigid community standards and laws set in place by the Utopian government. Time and activity constraints are designed with order in mind, but they lack the option of absolute freedom of the individual. Eight hours a night are spent sleeping; six hours are used for work, allowing a one or two hour gap between each half of the working day; the rest of the day is left “to each man’s individual discretion” (More, 37). However, A Utopian’s free time must be spent in some manner that is productive and helpful to the commonwealth; idleness is frowned upon, and each man or woman must keep themselves busy (More, 37). Utopia is seemingly devoid of any sort of beer or hard liquor, having only “wine, apple or pear cider, or simple water” mixed with “honey or licorice” (More, 33; Adams, 33). This absence of alehouses or taverns limits each person’s potential for indulging in sin because every person is in full view of everyone else, thus promoting a “healthy" leisure time (More, 45). In modern society, alcohol is an important aspect of certain cultures, providing relief from a stressful day at work, a tool of initiation, and a celebratory drink at special occasions such as weddings and birthdays. Furthermore, activities such as engaging in premarital sex, hawking, hunting, and gambling are forbidden, causing modern audiences to view these strange customs as breech of personal freedoms (Kumar).
Additionally, even travel within the island of Utopia is a challenge, for each person wishing to take a journey to another city to visit friends or relatives must first consult his syphogrant and tranibor (More, 44). Each man must then acquire a letter from the prince stating that he or she is permitted to travel. If this social contract is broken and a letter is not attained, and if the person is caught without a note, they are brought back to their city and treated as a runaway. If this happens twice, they are subjected to slavery (More, 45). This strict code of travel would baffle most modern people, for if a man in the town of Sikeston, Missouri in the United States were to decide he wanted to travel to Columbia, Missouri, he could do so without permission from any authority, save his own.
Finally, the institution of Utopian slavery raises moral questions and tests modern principles on the subject. The slaves in More’s Utopia “do all the particularly dirty and heavy work,” which includes slaughtering and cleaning the animals that are used for food (More, 42-43). It should be mentioned that the Utopians view the killing of fellow-animals as a danger to one’s humanity, thus suggesting that slaves have little to no humanity at all and are expendable. More states that Utopia’s slaves are comprised of three types of people: citizens who have committed a “heinous act”, prisoners of war, or “hardworking penniless drudges” who come from other lands to live in Utopia (More, 59). These slaves are all made to wear gold chains, gold earrings, gold rings, and even crowns to distinguish themselves from other members of the population; however, if a poor man who has committed himself to slavery wears the same chains as a criminal, then he is immediately put in the same ranks as those who have committed adultery or fought against the Utopians (More, 47). This hardly seems fair considering that a hardworking man is distinctly different than a thief. In nations such as the United States, where slavery has been banned since the introduction of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, slavery is deemed immoral and also illegal.
Additionally, one of Utopia’s reasons for declaring war on another country is to liberate their allies from “tyranny and servitude” (More, 66). If Utopians take prisoners of war, they are, ironically, enslaving and forcing their own prisoners into servitude, the unpleasant position from which they freed their allies. In a modern society where slavery and discrimination is looked down upon, this hypocrisy would be, at the very least, laughed at by most people and considered a folly.
Utopia’s impractical notions of an ideal society are far from perfect. From a modern perspective, none of Utopia’s traditions would be deemed at all ideal in the twenty-first century: the island’s identical towns and drab clothing snuff creativity; men are the greater sex; the social structure of the country is presented as equal, yet its citizens are separated by class; severe community principles limit pure individual freedom; the institution of slavery is used as a practical punishment and a prison. To view Utopia as perfect would be a mistake, for if humans cannot freely and truly express themselves because they are oppressed by their communities and government, then they are merely existing, not living, in a dystopia.
Works Cited:
Adams, Rovert M., ed. Utopia. New York: Norton, 1991. Print. Pgs 4-85.
Forward, Stephanie. "A taste of paradise: Thomas More's Utopia." The English Reviews Apr. 2001: 24. General Reference Center Gold. Web. 1 Dec. 2009.
Kumar, Krishan. "Utopia on the map of the world." The Hedgehog Review 10.1 (2008). Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 1 Dec. 2009.
More, Thomas. Utopia. 2nd ed., Ed. Robert M. Adams. New York: Norton, 1991. Print. Pgs 4-85.
"Paradise Dreamed: How Utopian Thinkers Have Changed the Modern World." New Statesmen & Society. 26 Nov. 1993. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 2 Dec. 2009.
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