Between Utopias Essay - 1846 Words

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†¦show more content†¦Instead of this injustice of jailing, the Utopians choose to take slaves. The fate facing slaves in Utopia is to be kept constantly at work, and are always fettered (70). Considering the premise in Book I of t he Polylerites constant work, Utopian slavery sounds vaguely tolerable, aside from the fetters, and the fact that the Utopians do not need to work full days. The Utopians excuse slavery by claiming they deal with their own people more harshly because they had the best of moral training (70). In this case, the criminal is punished for moral delinquency in the form of slaverys high moral standing. But perhaps the most remarkable and revealing of justifications is that A third class of slaves consists of hardworking penniless drudges from other nations who voluntarily choose to become slaves in Utopia (71). The appeal here, beyond the hilarity, is the existence of a third class of slaves. Not only do Utopians believe in and use slavery, but also they take no issue with the concept of a class system: not only to have slaves, but to have classes thereof. With slavery considered voluntary for some, punishment for others, and simply the luck of the draw for the rest, it appears the Utopian s cannot reach the rationality they claim to behold. Although they consider politics of other states to be flawed and corrupted, Utopia is not without its suspicions. Kings ofShow MoreRelatedSimilarities Between Utopia And Dystopia1672 Words   |  7 PagesDystopia and Utopia can be explored in many forms of media such as artwork, film, music, poetry and even dance. The easiest and most vivid way to depict these genres to the audience is in films. Films specifically incorporate visual symbolism through colors and settings and screenshot width and filters. Films may also incorporate a subliminal message to the reader through background music used in different scenes. Displaying utopian and dystopian societies through film leaves some imagination toRead MoreEcology Is A Modern Issue1596 Words   |  7 PagesBy speaking about human nature, I’m not implying that certain utopia is worthless because the abundance in resources is impossible. Rather, even in utopian worlds, the way people interact with each other and with the outside world should be accorded to the mechanism of evolution and ecology. All Three Early Modern Utopias have sufficient resources as their premise, but differ greatly in the extent of human control. Among the three, Utopia involves the greatest amount of human control, The Isle of PinesRead More Literary Utopian Societies Essays1747 Words   |  7 Pagesof one century is often the reality of the next†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Nelson 108). Throughout time, great minds have constructed their own visions of utopia. Through the study of utopias, one finds that these â€Å"perfect† societies have many flaws. For example, most utopias tend to have an authoritarian nature (Manuel 3). Also, another obvious imperfection found in the majority of utopias is that of a faulty social class system (Thomas 94). But one must realized that the flaws found in utopian societies serve a specificRead MoreUtopia And The Tempest By William Shakespeare1368 Words   |  6 PagesUtopia and The Tempest In Shakespeare is last play, the Tempest, originality is shown in the different settings and themes within the story. Within the Tempest, there is a world of imagination and illusion that challenges readers to look beyond reality and the world of non-existence, not existence. Through the play a utopia what can be found. It is something that many characters when they are on the island throughout. Within the tempest and Utopia, many differences and similarities between the socialRead MoreA Utopia Sounds Like A Wonderful Thing1433 Words   |  6 PagesFYS Final A utopia sounds like a wonderful thing. The Oxford English Dictionary defines â€Å"utopia† as an â€Å"imagined or hypothetical place, system, or state of existence in which everything is perfect, esp. in respect of social structure, laws, and politics.† (OED, 2015, entry 2) But what happens when someone tries to bring this imagined land of perfection into reality? Both in fictional literature and in real life applications, utopian dreams destroy societies. The word utopia originates from SirRead More Thomas Mores Utopia Essays1404 Words   |  6 PagesThomas More’s Utopia is a work of ambiguous dualities that forces the reader to question More’s real view on the concept of a utopian society. However, evidence throughout the novel suggests that More did intend Utopia to be the â€Å"best state of the commonwealth.† The detailed description of Utopia acts as Mores mode of expressing his humanistic views, commenting on the fundamentals of human nature and the importance of reason and natural law, while gracefully combining the two seemingly conflictingRead MoreOryx And Crake And The Carhulke As A Dystopian Society1356 Words   |  6 PagesThe Carhullan Army exhibit components of the establishment of a utopia, within a dystopia. A dystopia is defined as â€Å"an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one† (Oxford Dictionaries, 2017 ). Contrastingly, a utopia is defined as â€Å"an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect† (Oxford Dictionaries, 2017). The extent to which a utopia is established in a dystopian society is evident in a multitudeRead More`` Utopia `` By Thomas More1493 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout human history, Utopia is a word that have been eulogized as a community or society possessing highly desirable or perfect qualities. This idea has been promoted by Thomas More via his fiction work and political philosophy in 1516. Utopia, then, becomes a final goal of many wealthy people around the world, who are seeking for the happiest and the most secure place to maintain their property. However, most of individual prefer to keep benefits for themselves rather than sharing with othersRead MoreModern Society Is Far From Perfect, And Even Further From1618 Words   |  7 Pagesto examine the ways in which the concept of utopia has been portrayed on screen, notably withi n the genre of science fiction (SF). Prior to critically evaluating its links to film, we should start by defining utopia. Utopia is about how we would live and what kind of world we would live in if we could do just that. The construction of imaginary worlds, free from the difficulties that beset us in reality. (Levitas, 1990, P. 1) This summarising of utopia suggests clearly why it has been such a popularRead MoreThe Beach By Alex Garland875 Words   |  4 Pagesand looked up the differences between the film and the book and surprisingly there were quite a lot of similarities and a lot of differences. One of the big differences is the utopia and dystopia of the story. Before I go with reference to relating the movie and film with these different societies. Let me first explain what utopia and dystopia is. First off, utopia is a society that is considered perfect, a perfect world, no problems what so ever. The idea of utopia is basically a society that is