UTOPIA & UTOPIAN LITERATURE

1. What was the date of publication of Utopia? 2. What explorations had created a new world picture in the quarter of a century prior to the composition of Utopia? How did those explorations affect the book? 3. Who was Erasmus and what was his connection with More? 4. Who […]

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Scholars believe it is possible to reconstruct with considerable certainty the history of the writing of Utopia, and that history throws some valuable light on the understanding of the work. In May, 1515, More went to Bruges in the Netherlands as a member of an English governmental commission to negotiate […]

Read more Critical Essays The Composition of Utopia

Life of Sir Thomas More Thomas More was knighted and has consequently been known as Sir Thomas More through the later years of his life and through succeeding centuries. On the 400th anniversary of his death he was canonized by the Roman Catholic church and has sometimes been known as […]

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Summary After Hythloday has ended his long discourse on the Utopian commonwealth, More offers some final observations, not to Hythloday and Peter Giles as part of their discussion but as author to reader. He says that many things in Hythloday’s report seemed strange to him, even absurd; for example, the […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book II: The Discourse on Utopia: More’s Concluding Observation

Summary In a concluding statement, Hythloday declares his admiration for the Utopian laws and customs. Utopia, he maintains, is not only the best commonwealth but the only true one. His reason for this claim is that in all other nations every man strives to acquire wealth for himself, whereas in […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book II: The Discourse on Utopia: Peroration

Summary There is no official state religion in Utopia. People are allowed freedom of belief, with the consequence that there is a variety of religious sects or, as we should say, denominations. For example, some of their people worship the sun, some the moon, and some famous men of virtue. […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book II: The Discourse on Utopia: Religion

Summary Utopians hate war, regarding it as inhuman, something not practiced by any wild beasts. What is often called the glory achieved in war seems to them inglorious. Nevertheless, they train constantly in the disciplines of war, both men and women, to be ready for any exigency. The causes for […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book II: The Discourse on Utopia: War

Summary In their relations with other nations, the Utopians never enter into alliances because they have observed how easily pledges are broken by their neighboring countries. It is a pity, Hythloday comments, that those remote nations cannot learn to follow the splendid examples set by the Christian nations of Europe, […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book II: The Discourse on Utopia: Treaties and Alliances

Summary Punishments are not specified for most crimes or misdemeanors, and the sentence is determined by the magistrate. For the most heinous crimes, the penalty is slavery. Within families, husbands have the authority to correct wives, and parents to chastise children. As punishment is meted out for crimes, so, too, […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book II: The Discourse on Utopia: Laws

Summary Women do not marry before they are 18 and men before 22. Those who indulge in forbidden embraces, whether before or after marriage, are severely punished. They believe that if such liberties were condoned, it would discourage people from marrying. The choosing of a mate is treated as a […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book II: The Discourse on Utopia: Marriage and Divorce