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Utopia
sense of possibility to Europe and a renewed belief in human
INTR
INTRODUCTION
ODUCTION progress. The work is playfully reflective of this context, though
we might wonder to what extent its ambiguous presentation of
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF SIR THOMAS MORE Utopia is also a suggestion of the limitations of progress. To
Born to Sir John More, an eminent lawyer, and his wife Agnes, give a more specific historical context, More began writing
Thomas More was raised in London. As a young boy, Thomas Utopia while he was sent as part of an English commission
received one of the best educations his time offered, at St. under King Henry VIII to the Netherlands; their mission was to
Anthony’s School, and between 1490 and 1492 he served as a negotiate on behalf of the English wool trade, which had
household page for the Archbishop of Canterbury. At the age of suffered losses after the King of Castile, the future Charles V,
nineteen More enrolled at Oxford, where he learned Greek, imposed high import taxes on English wool. It was during this
only to leave in 1499 to study law in London. It was also around mission that More met Peter Giles, whom he befriended and
this time that, as a deeply serious Catholic, he took up the includes as a character in Utopia. It was also around this time
practices of self-mortification: wearing a hair shirt, using a log that More was debating with himself whether he should go into
for his pillow, whipping himself, etc. At twenty-one More the service of Henry VIII as a counselor, and this debate is
entered Parliament, and soon after was named the Under- externalized in Book I of Utopia. It is a dark irony that, shortly
Sherriff of London. In 1503, he successfully argued in the after the publication of Utopia, Martin Luther initiated the
House of Commons against King Henry VII’s proposal that he Protestant Reformation in 1517, which threw Europe and
receive a subsidy for his daughter Margaret’s dowry. This England in particular into a frenzy of bitter conflict, violence,
action incurred the King’s displeasure, so much so that More and warfare.
considered leaving England and becoming a monk—but instead
he stayed in London to advance his political and legal career,
RELATED LITERARY WORKS
and King Henry VII died a few years later. More is reputed to
have pleaded only cases he thought just, and to have worked More’s central model for his Utopia is Plato’s Republic, an
for free on behalf of widows, orphans, and the poor. In 1515, extended philosophical dialogue of Greek antiquity in which
More began composing, in Latin, his Utopia, which was not his Plato’s character Socrates deduces the structure of the human
first literary work but certainly that on which his reputation as soul and envisions an ideal republic where society is perfectly
a writer is founded. During the reign of Henry VIII, More was organized and the philosopher is king. More borrows
knighted in 1521 and became the Lord Chancellor of England conventions and ideas from Plato’s work—both Plato’s republic
in 1529. He used this position to ruthlessly oppose the and Utopia are centered on collective ownership, for
Protestant Reformation in England, going so far as to torture example—while also calling into question the justness and
Protestants and burn them at the stake as heretics. However, practicality of utopia-building in general. He does this, in part,
around this time Henry VIII himself, in an attempt to produce by framing his account of Utopia within a parody of the travel
an heir to the throne, resolved to annul his first marriage to narrative, a popular Renaissance genre (see our theme on
Catherine of Aragon, which was a direct challenge to Catholic Travel, Discovery, and Place to learn more). More’s work also
doctrine. In 1531, the King required that the English clergy reflects the culture of Renaissance humanism, which valued the
swear allegiance to him, and not the Pope, as the Supreme humanities, especially the revival of classical literature and
Head of the Church of England. More, however, remained loyal rhetoric, as a means of encouraging virtue and civic ethics in
to the Pope, and opposed the King’s divorce from Catherine. society. Many humanists are referenced in Utopia—especially
He resigned his Chancellorship in 1532, but not before More’s friend, the great Dutchman Desiderius Erasmus—for
incurring the displeasure of yet another king. In 1535, More their wisdom and eloquence. Finally, Utopia has proven deeply
was tried for high treason and found guilty. He was executed by influential in English literature, not only as a basis for other
decapitation on July 6 of that year, and he died, in his own early modern utopias, like Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis and
words, “the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” Both the Henry Neville’s The Isle of Pines, but also as a forerunner to the
Catholic Church and the Church of England now honor More form of the novel itself by way of prose narratives like Jonathan
as a saint. Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe
Crusoe.
More’s most famous modern descendants include dystopian
HISTORICAL CONTEXT writers like Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Alasdair Gray, and
Margaret Atwood.
More wrote Utopia during the Age of Discovery, when
European voyages of exploration were bringing a newfound

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KEY FACTS More is returning home from church one day when he runs into
Giles, who is speaking with an old man called Raphael
• Full Title: Libellus vere aureus, nec minus salutaris quam Hythloday. More, Giles, and Hythloday walk together to More’s
festivus, de optimo rei publicae deque nova insula Utopia (A truly
house, and in his garden the three men talk at length.
golden little book, no less beneficial than entertaining, of a
Hythloday, we learn, sailed the world alongside the great
republic’s best state and of the new island Utopia)
historical explorer Amerigo Vespucci, and he even traveled to
• When Written: 1515-1516 the New World by way of Asia. Moreover, it was in the New
• Where Written: The Netherlands; England World that he came into contact with the Utopians, an island
• When Published: 1516 people who live in what Hythloday thinks to be the most
• Literary Period: Renaissance humanism perfectly organized commonwealth in the world.
• Genre: Early “utopian fiction”; philosophical dialogue; satire More and Giles are so impressed with Hythloday that they
encourage him to go into the service of a prince as his
• Setting: Antwerp; England; the fictional island of Utopia
counselor, but Hythloday has his doubts: princes are too
• Antagonist: Bad governance, pride, and idleness interested chivalry and war to heed wisdom, and his fellow
• Point of View: First-person limited counselors would be proud and corrupt.
By way of illustration, Hythloday recounts a dinner he had at
EXTRA CREDIT Cardinal John Morton’s table in England years earlier. There a
The Utopian Genre. More’s Utopia is generally credited with lawyer praised England for severely punishing its thieves (with
establishing the utopian genre—but what characterizes the the death penalty). Hythloday counters that the punishment is
works that belong to this genre? The critic J.C. Davis advances disproportionate to the crime in such a case; moreover, he
an influential account in his Utopia and the Ideal Society (1981). argues that, instead of killing its thieves, England should change
He argues that, unlike other ideal world narratives, utopias the social conditions that breed thieves in the first place.
idealize neither people nor nature; that is, people who appear Specifically, he indicts the pride and greed of aristocrats and
in utopian works can be good or bad, just like in the real world, landowners as a great cause of idleness among the lower
and nature can be both fruitful and hostile, just like in the real classes. Idleness, he says, causes poverty and misery. Hythloday
world. Utopias instead idealize “social attitude and structure,” instead proposes that thieves be forced to labor as punishment,
and hold that people can devise political institutions capable of which would spare them their lives and also serve the public
optimally organizing vice and nature in the service of human good. Everyone at the table disagrees with Hythloday’s
health and happiness. Whether this is the case, of course, has ideas—that is, until Cardinal Morton approves them, which
yet to be seen. suggests that the men surrounding the Cardinal are just self-
absorbed flatterers.
Utopia in the World and in Us. The critic Northrop Frye has At the end of this story, More says that he still believes that if
two interrelated ideas about how a utopia manifests in the Hythloday were to serve as the counselor of a prince, he would
world. He thinks, for one thing, that the idea of “a limited Utopia greatly benefit his nation. Hythloday disagrees. He imagines
in a restricted or enclosed space is an empty fantasy.” Rather, helping an empire-building French king like Charles the VIII or
“Utopia must be a world-wide transformation of the whole Louis the VII wage his wars of conquest: if Hythloday were to
social order or it is nothing.” How such a transformation might suggest that the king cease his wars and focus on domestic
be effected is the subject of Frye’s second idea: “The real matters, what would happen? More concedes that the king
Utopia,” he writes, “is an individual goal, of which the disciplined would not be grateful for such advice. Hythloday goes on to say
society is an allegory.” It would seem that, for Frye, Utopia will that, as a counselor, he would be forced to approve of bad laws
be nothing more than an empty fantasy until we all build and policies or else go mad. He speculates that no nation with
utopias in ourselves through education. private property or money can ever be justly governed.
Hythloday then begins his discourse on Utopia. At More’s
request, Hythloday describes the island in great detail. The
PL
PLO
OT SUMMARY cities are all virtually identical to one another—prosperous,
When Utopia opens, the character Thomas More is in the conveniently laid out—but Amaurote is the capital because of
Netherlands, serving as an ambassador sent by King Henry VIII its central location. The foundation of Utopian society is this:
of England to hold negotiations concerning the English wool the citizens of Utopia own nothing individually but share the
trade. More then travels to Antwerp, where he takes up resources of their nation collectively, from land to housing to
residence and befriends an honest, learned citizen of that city bread and wine; also, money does not exist in Utopia (indeed,
named Peter Giles. the Utopians loathe gold as a useless metal). Without private
property, Hythloday says, people don’t cultivate their pride so

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much as their nation, which is like a thriving household or subject to exile or bondage. All people worship in the same
family. churches together, and the priests are elected by secret ballot
The Utopians live together in patriarchal families with no fewer to provide the community with spiritual guidance.
than ten and no more than sixteen members (not counting After Hythloday concludes his discourse on Utopia, More
children). All Utopians work at both farming and at least one thinks to himself that many Utopian laws and policies are
other craft, and they work for at least six hours each day. When founded on no good reason, even when it comes to the
the Utopians are not working, eating, or sleeping, they are free principal foundation of their ordinances (their collective
to use their time as they please. There are few laws in Utopia, ownership of resources and moneyless economy). However,
and lawyers are banned from the commonwealth for being too More doesn’t want to offend Hythloday by disagreeing with his
cunning in their interpretations of the law. The only offense for claims. Though More cannot agree with Hythloday in
which there is a prescribed punishment is adultery: a person everything, he confesses that he wishes for many features of
who commits adultery once is forced into bondage, and a Utopia to be realized in Europe’s cities—but he also doesn’t
person who commits the offense twice is sentenced to death. dare hope as much, for such a hope would be unrealistic.
The Utopians are overseen and encouraged in their work by
magistrates known as Philarchs, elected by the people
themselves. The Philarchs, as well as their superiors, the
CHARA
CHARACTERS
CTERS
Archphilarchs and Prince, often meet to discuss the state of the Thomas More – Thomas More is simultaneously a historical
commonwealth, including any problems among the personage, the author of Utopia, and a character in it—but the
commoners, though these seldom arise. Policies are in place to author’s resemblance to the character doesn’t mean the two
protect the Utopians from tyranny, political corruption, and are the same. In the work, More visits Antwerp while on a
rash decision-making; for example, magistrates who hold diplomatic mission on behalf of King Henry VIII of England, and
consultations about the commonwealth outside of the council there he befriends Peter Giles and Raphael Hythloday; More’s
or the place of the common election are sentenced to death. record of the discussion he has with these two men in his
However, the magistrates love their people, and are both just garden makes up the book Utopia. More is an intelligent,
and humane. In addition to the magistracy, slavery is perhaps curious man, dutifully committed to his family and public
the most distinct social feature in Utopia. Slavery in Utopia is a service, and also is a practical believer in plain speech. He has
punishment for those Utopians who have committed “heinous faith that wise counselors in the service of kings can improve
offenses”; the nation also pays cities in other lands for their society—a point on which he and Hythloday disagree. After
criminals, but only those already condemned to death, who are Hythloday concludes his discourse on Utopia, More thinks to
then brought back to Utopia to labor in bondage. The Utopians himself that many of that commonwealth’s laws and policies are
are reluctant to go to war, but when they’re forced to do so not founded on good reason, especially the abolition of private
they hire mercenaries so as to spare their own people property and money. Nonetheless, he wishes for many features
bloodshed. The Utopians are cunning in war and “fight dirty,” of Utopian society to be realized in Europe’s cities, though he
doing everything possible to save life and resolve conflict doesn’t dare hope as much, for such a hope would be
quickly. unrealistic. That More the historical author should invent
As for moral philosophy, the Utopians’ chief area of inquiry is Utopia only for More the character to criticize it suggests how
how people can attain to happiness. They are essentially deeply ambiguous the text is as a whole.
hedonists: people who believe that pleasure is the most
Raphael Hythloda
Hythlodayy – Raphael Hythloday is an old, sunburned,
important thing in life. The Utopians define virtue as a life
long-bearded, wise (and fictional) man from Portugal who
organized according to nature. We follow nature by heeding
meets Thomas More and Peter Giles in Antwerp. Hythloday
what our reason approves of and disapproves of; reason also
traveled the world (in the book) alongside the great historical
guides us in the love of the divine. The Utopians’ highest
explorer Amerigo Vespucci, and he knows a great deal about
pleasures are the exercise of virtue and conscience. Underlying
many foreign peoples and countries. As such, Hythloday is able
the Utopians’ philosophy are religious ideas. They hold the soul
to provide More and Giles with a critique of governance in
to be immortal and destined by God for happiness; they also
Europe, and more specifically in England, which he finds to be
believe that good deeds are rewarded, and bad deeds punished,
irrationally ruled by pride. Hythloday also tells the two men
in the afterlife. All over the island, however, and even within a
about the most perfectly governed society he knows of, namely,
given city, people worship different deities, from the sun to
Utopia, where he lived for five years. As wise as he is,
great heroes of the past. Atheism is rebuked but tolerated in
Hythloday is nonetheless pessimistic: he does not believe that
Utopia, as are heresies like that which holds the souls of
reason and wisdom can improve society as it is currently
animals to be immortal; only people who condemn other
organized, because pride, private interests, and flattery have
religions and attempt to force others to their opinions are
made it so that good counsel falls on deaf ears in the king’s

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court. That More the author intends Hythloday to be an vagabonds, or begging drifters. The Cardinal accepts the first
ambiguous character—is he a herald of good tidings? a verbose proposal in jest, but others at the table uncritically accept it in
crackpot?—is suggested by his name: “Hythloday” likely means earnest, which suggests to Hythloday how little such courtiers
something like “peddler of triflers” or “kindler of nonsense,” and would value his counsel. In any case, the joker enrages the friar
yet the traveler also shares his first name with the Biblical angel with his last joke, and the Cardinal, seeing no end in sight to the
who helps man understand the ways of God. argument, at last sends the joker away.
Peter Giles – Like More himself, Peter Giles is both a historical AFFriar
riar – One of the men whom Raphael Hythloday speaks with
personage and a character in Utopia. Historically, he was a pupil at Cardinal Morton’s table, the friar becomes enraged when he
and friend of the great Dutch humanist Erasmus, and he was becomes the butt of the joker’s mockery. He goes so far as to
appointed Chief Secretary of Antwerp in 1510; in 1515, it was insinuate that the joker could be excommunicated for his
Erasmus himself who introduced Giles to More. In the work, words. The idle, antagonistic, intolerant interaction between
More describes Giles as a citizen of Antwerp, honest, learned, the joker and the friar is thus contrasted with the fruitful,
virtuous, kind-hearted, and loving. More finds Giles’s neighborly relationships cultivated in Utopia.
conversation both merry and pleasant, and it makes him feel Utopus – Utopus is the (fictional) founder of the
less homesick to have such an entertaining new friend. commonwealth of Utopia. He lived some 1,760 years before
Moreover, Giles introduces More to Raphael Hythloday. Raphael Hythloday delivers his discourse on the island nation.
Although Giles doesn’t often speak in Utopia, he is important as Utopus is best known for setting the groundwork of all Utopian
a representative of the culture of Renaissance humanism—so law and policy, as well as for ordering the conquered natives of
highly esteemed by More— which valued the humanities, the place and his own soldiers to cut up and dig Utopia away
especially the revival of classical literature and rhetoric, as a from the mainland to which it was attached—so it was that
means of encouraging virtue and civic ethics in society. Utopia came to be born as an island. Utopus also dedicated
Cardinal John Morton – Cardinal John Morton is an himself to taking care of the useful, pleasant gardens of Utopia
honorable, prudent, and virtuous old man when he appears in when he founded the nation.
Utopia, as well as the Archbishop and Cardinal of Canterbury
and the Lord Chancellor of England—just as he was in real life.
Both in fact and fiction, Thomas More served as a household THEMES
page for Morton while still a boy, and he deeply respects his
In LitCharts literature guides, each theme gets its own color-
former master. We meet the Cardinal in Book I of Utopia, when
coded icon. These icons make it easy to track where the themes
Raphael Hythloday describes a conversation he had at the
occur most prominently throughout the work. If you don't have
Cardinal’s table about certain laws and policies in England.
a color printer, you can still use the icons to track themes in
Although the Cardinal proves to be eloquent, open-minded,
black and white.
and tolerant of a joke here and there, it becomes apparent that
the other men at his table are impudent flatterers. That such a
virtuous man tolerates such bad company suggests how quietly TRAVEL, DISCOVERY, AND PLACE
private interests can infiltrate human governments. Thomas More wrote his Utopia during the so-called
A La
Lawy
wyer
er – One of the men whom Raphael Hythloday speaks Age of Discovery, when European voyages of
with at Cardinal Morton’s table, the lawyer praises the severity exploration, especially by sea, were vastly enriching
of English justice: he thinks it a good sign that so many thieves human knowledge about the globe. With discovery, moreover,
in England are hanged and that so few escape hanging. After came a renewed belief in human progress and
Hythloday thoroughly critiques his position, the lawyer perfectibility—both ideas that More muses upon in his work.
attempts to respond in pompous, verbose terms, but the Utopia is at once a parody of the then-popular genre of the
Cardinal worthily silences him. Later, the lawyer just dismisses travel narrative—written by explorers about their exciting
Hythloday’s argument out of hand—and ironically everyone adventures abroad—and also a vision of a society organized far
present agrees with him, except for the Cardinal himself. The more coherently than any our history has yet produced: Utopia.
lawyer represents how pride and prejudice make us deaf to Thus More’s fictional narrator, the wise traveller Raphael
reason and wisdom. Hythloday, doesn’t entertain us with death-defying adventures
A Jok
Joker
er – One of the men whom Raphael Hythloday speaks littered with sea monsters and hostile natives, as would be
with at Cardinal Morton’s table, the joker constantly tries to typical of the Renaissance travel narrative, but instead
say witty things (as a traditional “fool” would), but he only educates us by recalling his intellectual adventures among the
succeeds once in a while. He jokes that beggars should be Utopians, a hard-working, practical, and virtuous people who
forced into monasteries and convents and made into lay have organized their society to maximize human health and
brethren and nuns, and he also says that friars are actually happiness. After all, monsters like those in popular travel

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narratives are easy to find (as More points out), and you don’t society as it is—organized irrationally by pride, which
even have to go abroad to find them: just look at the proud Hythloday takes to be the ultimate source of all human
leaders of European societies, who nurse idleness, punish their wrongdoing—whereas Book II presents a vision of society as it
citizens cruelly, kill for worthless gold, and wage bloody, unjust ought to be. The question remains, however, whether knowing
warfare. To find citizens like the Utopians who are ruled by what good governance ideally looks like aids us in actually
good laws, in contrast, is ironically a much harder thing to do. governing well on earth—or, even more troublingly, whether we
As earnest as Utopia is about the need for good governance, the can really imagine what good governance looks like in the first
work’s playful ambiguities nonetheless invite us to question the place.
possibility of such an ideally organized society as Utopia ever More saves this second question for Book II, and first considers
arising on earth. The word “utopia” itself, More’s coinage, what bad governance looks like, as revealed by Hythloday’s
sounds like the Greek eutopia, “the good place,” but literally critique of certain social policies and institutions active in
means “nowhere.” (Most of the invented names in the work are Renaissance Europe. Hythloday begins by arguing against the
jokes in this vein.) But, we might ask, how did Hythloday travel sentencing of thieves to death as disproportionate to the crime
to a place that is nowhere? And is it possible for people to build (according to records from the period, some 7,200 thieves
a utopia, a nowhere, here on earth? According to Hythloday, the were hanged under the reign of Henry VIII alone), and this
island nation is, in fact, located off the coast of the New World, argument spirals outward to suggest the failings of society in
that is, the Americas. Europeans (including Christopher general that make it a breeder of thieves and worse. In
Columbus) optimistically imagined the Americas to be the site Hythloday’s account, poor or idle (because untrained) men are
of the Garden of Eden, the divinely governed Biblical paradise forced to become thieves in order to avoid starvation. Those
from which humankind fell after disobeying God. The fact that thieves who aren’t hanged then usually become soldiers, whom
the New World is at once a physical place and, at least in the society keeps fighting fit by deploying in needless, vain, and
Renaissance, a supposed mythical paradise, deepens More’s unprofitable wars of conquest. Such men could be well
ambiguities. Can we, as people afflicted by sin and vice, build a employed as farmers, but landowners at the time and even holy
society as happy as the paradise where people lived before sin men in the Church are profitably turning farmland into
was brought into the world? Complicating the matter even pastures for sheep, such that little land is available for
more, finally, is the fact that the capital city of Utopia, Amaurote commoners to farm. This in turn leads them into beggary,
(“dim city”), is a shadowy but point-for-point copy of More’s thievery, and debauchery in taverns and alehouses.
London, from its geography to the layout of its walls, streets, In short, unchecked pride and idleness are the parents of social
and houses. Far from being “nowhere” for More’s corruption, and European society, irrationally, puts a stop to
contemporary readers, then, Utopia would have seemed, if only neither. This would not be the case, Hythloday claims, if people
in its superficial particulars, strangely familiar. didn’t have the license to pursue their own private interests at
The implication of these ambiguities regarding place is that, the expense of the nation, and also if the government itself
while Utopia exists nowhere, the potential for a utopia exists wasn’t stuffed with unreflective leaders and flatterers who
everywhere. But to travel there we must, like propose nearsighted solutions that serve only to exacerbate
Hythloday—whom we’re told resembles both the great sailor the problems they’re intended to solve.
Ulysses and the great philosopher Plato—undertake an
arduous intellectual adventure aboard the ship of reason and PROPERTY, LABOR, AND UTOPIAN
virtue. SOCIETY
In Book II of Utopia, we learn that the principal
BAD GOVERNANCE, PRIDE, AND foundation of Utopian law and policy, as in Plato’s
IDLENESS ideal republic and some monastic systems, is the abolition of all
Utopia is divided into two books. The first private property. In other words, the citizens of Utopia own
(composed for the most part after the second) nothing individually but share the resources of their nation
contains a discussion of governance in Europe generally and collectively, from land to housing to bread and wine. (The
specifically in England under King Henry VIII, whom Thomas Utopians are so committed to this that, to give a more radical
More the man famously served as a counselor and at whose example, the doors to their houses are never locked or bolted,
hand More was later executed for treason. Book II contains the so that any citizen can, when they please, freely enter any other
description of Utopia’s government, laws, and orders. citizen’s house.) Without private property, Hythloday says,
(Following the influential Utopia scholar J.H. Hexter, we people don’t cultivate their pride so much as their nation, which
occasionally refer to Book I as the “Dialogue of Counsel” and to becomes like a great and thriving household.
Book II as the “Discourse on Utopia” throughout.) Another way Hythloday gives several reasons as to why there is no private
of thinking about this division is that Book I critically presents

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property in Utopia. For one thing, he says, in nations founded THE PUBLIC GOOD, VIRTUE, AND
on property and money—like feudal England, where wealthy RELIGION
landlords profited from peasants’ work—it tends to be the case
As a character in Utopia (not to be confused with
that wealth unjustly falls into the hands of the most useless,
the historical figure and author), Thomas More
wicked, and greedy people. Only these few divide up the wealth
questions Hythloday as to whether or not people will really
among themselves while the rest of the citizens are afflicted by
work at all without the incentive of personal gain (referring to
“the heavy and inevitable burden of poverty and
Utopia’s lack of private property). Won’t people be too
wretchedness.” In contrast, the equality established in Utopia
confident in other people’s industry and so lazily excuse
enables every man, woman, and child to live in plenty. By the
themselves from labor? In response, Hythloday explains how
same token, everyone in Utopia who is fit to work must earn
many important features of Utopian society are designed
their keep through labor. Second, “where nothing is private,”
precisely so that everyone cultivates a sense of virtue and
Hythloday claims, “the common affairs be earnestly looked
works not only willingly but zealously on behalf of the public
upon.”
good. Almost the only task for Utopian magistrates is to keep
One earnestly looks upon the common affairs by rolling up others diligent in their tasks and to excite others’ industry, and
one’s sleeves and diligently getting to work, and for no less than there are also positive incentives in place that keep Utopians
six hours a day. There are no idle serving men here, no idle whistling while they work, so to speak. In exchange for their
women, no idle priests, no idle landowners, and no idle able- labor, Utopia provides all of its citizens with housing, as much
bodied beggars. For one thing, everyone in Utopia is educated good food as is reasonable, high-quality medical care, and
in the theory and practice of farming, and all citizens are protection from war. All the time that is not spent at work,
required to relocate to the country at some point in their lives sleep, or eating the Utopians may spend as they please, as long
to work the farms for a period of two years. Such a policy makes they remain “virtuous” and busy. Significantly, Hythloday
it so that Utopians never lack agricultural knowledge, which is doesn’t even explicitly tell us how idle Utopians are punished
especially important in the event of a food shortage, and many (whipping? bondage? exile?), so we might imagine that Utopia is
hands also make light work. In addition, every Utopian learns so well designed that the conditions which give rise to idleness
his or her own proper craft: clothworking, masonry, simply don’t exist there.
metalworking, or carpentry. To keep people diligently at their
Moreover, Utopians are rigorously educated from the time
tasks is almost the only office of the Utopian magistrates
they are children, both in virtue ethics (which develops an
known as Syphogrants or Philarchs, who are chosen by the
individual’s character) and in civic ethics (which develops our
people they live among. But not even these magistrates live
conduct as citizens working together cooperatively) modeled
idly: though exempt from labor by law, they labor anyway so
after the Roman idea of duty. Utopian virtue ethics, derived
that “their example [may] provoke others to work.”
from Greek philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics,
There are two principal social statuses in Utopia that affect the has as its goal every citizen taking pleasure in exercising virtue
conditions of one’s work. A person is either 1) a freeman, and in doing the right thing, which is the highest pleasure of the
including the average Utopian and members of the magistracy mind. More specifically, virtue for the Utopians means desiring
or priesthood; or 2) a bondman, or slave, who works more than and refusing things as reason dictates. Now, this is not to say
freemen and at harder work. Slavery in Utopia is a punishment that Utopians don’t enjoy pleasures of the body like drinking
for those Utopians who have committed “heinous offenses.” wine and listening to music, or less still that they pursue pain
The nation also pays cities in other lands for their criminals, but for its own sake (compare this with the fact that More the man,
only those already condemned to death, who are then brought for one, was a self-flagellator). We might rather summarize the
back to Utopia to labor in bondage. We might be scandalized Utopian position as follows: we can achieve happiness
that slavery should exist in Utopia, but the institution is part principally through good and honest pleasures, including but
and parcel of the Utopians’ program of eliminating idleness and not limited to the exercise of virtue, but we should not let lesser
waste: instead of hanging a thief, as England would, why not pleasures hinder us from obtaining bigger pleasures.
force him to contribute to the public good? Or so runs
Finally, it must be added that religion binds the Utopians
Hythloday’s argument. In Utopia, where universal labor and
together in service of the public good. Utopians believe in and
communal property are seen as crucial aspects of happiness,
worship different gods without conflict, but all worship in the
slavery is simply the practical answer to human error. Of
same churches, and all agree in this: the chief god they worship
course, this fact then only adds to the ambiguities of just how
is of the very same divine, majestic, and absolutely sovereign
much of a “utopia” Utopia really is.
nature as everyone else’s gods. So long as one’s religious
opinions do not insult the dignity of humankind, and so long as
one is not altogether irreligious, one has religious freedom in
Utopia. This is so important to the Utopians because they

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ground their entire philosophy upon religion: they hold the soul means both the death of vicious, warlike men, and also that the
to be immortal and meant for happiness, and believe that good Utopians won’t have to pay as much for their services.
deeds, especially “busy labors and good exercises,” are Utopia’s interest in practicality seeps so deeply into the text as
rewarded in the afterlife, while evil deeds punished. Moreover, to determine its very style. In a letter to Peter Giles, More’s
the Utopians are convinced that, if one does not have religion, real-life friend who also does double-duty as a character in
one will necessarily mock the faithful or break the country’s Utopia, More argues that texts plainly and simply written often
laws. Whether or not this is the case, Hythloday makes it clear get closer to the truth—better an iron than a golden tongue.
that virtue and religion as goals in themselves orient Utopians
in the service of the public good.
THE AMBIGUITIES OF UTOPIA
IDEALS AND PRACTICALITY Utopia is so ambiguous a work that one critic calls it
“the most slippery of texts: in no other literary work
There is a tension throughout Utopia between our is the question of authorial intention at once more
ideals and practicality, between wish and reality. pressing or more unanswerable.” As such, we can’t take at face
Indeed, after listening patiently to Hythloday’s value anything we read in the book. Questions the text invites
description of Utopia, that ideal society, Thomas More the but never resolves include: can a utopia be established on
character confesses that, though he wishes for many features earth, and, if not, why imagine one, especially when philosophy
of Utopia to be realized in Europe’s cities, he doesn’t dare hope falls on deaf ears in the courts of kings? Moreover, does the
as much, for such a hope would be unrealistic. Utopia that Raphael Hythloday describes really nurture human
More the character, for his part, is nonetheless somewhat happiness, or is it oppressively totalitarian? (The name
optimistic, at least in Book I. There he proposes that that “Hythloday,” it is appropriate to add here, likely means
Hythloday enter into the service of a prince as his philosophical something like “peddler of triflers,” “kindler of nonsense,” and
counselor, so that his experience and wisdom may help society yet the traveler also shares his first name with Raphael, the
in some way. When kings listen to philosophers, after all, or angel who helps man understand the ways of God.)
when the philosophers are themselves the kings, as in Plato’s As if to make his own text even slipperier, Thomas More the
Republic, won’t our wish for good governance at last be man led a life dramatically inconsistent with Utopian law and
realized? Hythloday has his doubts, however. In fact, he says order, in what amounts to an extreme clash between his literary
darkly that philosophy has no place among kings. The “ideal” and his lived reality. He was a lawyer—but lawyers are
counselors of kings, necessarily working in imperfect banned from Utopia for being too cunning in their
institutions among corrupt people, can do no more than make interpretations of the law. He was a devout Catholic who,
what is “very evil” into merely a lesser evil, and even the good during the Reformation, tortured Protestants and approved of
counselor is easily perverted into wrongdoing. It may well be as burning them at the stake as heretics—but Utopia is tolerant of
More himself says: “It is not possible for all things to be well all religions (just not the irreligious), and those who
unless all men were good. Which I think will not be yet these “vehemently and fervently” attempt to convert others are
good many years.” banished or enslaved.
One of the ironies of Utopia, of course, is that the Utopians There are even internal inconsistencies in the description of
themselves can be so much more down-to-earth and practical Utopia itself, it would seem. One critic, Stephen Greenblatt,
than the philosopher who imagines them. They all wear argues that, though Utopians are only required to work six
comfortable, flexible uniforms, distinguished only by gender hours a day, a close reading reveals that the workday as
and marital status, to minimize the number of cloth workers described in the text would really fill one’s day from sunrise to
they need. They are skilled inventors and astronomers. In sunset. At the end of Book II, even Thomas More the character
contrast to their European counterparts, the Utopians value says, “Many things came to mind which in the manners and laws
iron, which can be used to fashion various tools and of that people seemed to be instituted and founded of no good
instruments, above useless gold, which they scorn and chain reason.”
their slaves with. Also, rather than force their incurable,
What are we to make of this literary house of mirrors, of all
agonized sick people to suffer drawn-out deaths, the Utopians
these maze-like questions, ambiguities, and inconsistencies?
have legalized euthanasia (or voluntary death), which they see
Many readers have simply found Utopia to be nothing more, at
as both humane and, rather bluntly, as practical, “seeing [as an
last, than a grand literary joke, impossible to pin down and so
invalid] is not able to do any duty of life.” It is especially in
difficult to connect with. But perhaps there is a more fruitful
warfare that the Utopians are so “practical” as to strike us as
way of engaging with the work. In the first theme we discussed
conniving or cruel. They hire mercenaries to avoid the
how Utopia is “nowhere,” but the potential for a utopia is
bloodshed of Utopian citizens—and they rather relish the
everywhere. What More’s ambiguities direct our attention to
prospect of their own mercenaries falling in battle, for this

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are the great difficulties that await us as we seek to realize that
GOLD
potential; Utopia cannot be built in a day, as it were. These
ambiguities also require that we carefully weigh and examine In Utopia, gold represents the goal and prize of
matters for ourselves, that we awaken and listen to our inner human pride and domination. Rich men and women
philosophers—which is, after all, the first step all of us must adorn themselves with it to prove their superiority to others;
take before any of us can begin the journey to utopia. thieves and princes exploit others to get it; nations send men
out to fight and die for it. And all this occurs despite the fact
that gold is, practically speaking, useless. The Utopians, in
SYMBOLS contrast to their European counterparts, loathe gold, even
though they don’t by any means lack it. The Utopians even
Symbols appear in teal text throughout the Summary and fetter their slaves with gold to shame them, just as people in
Analysis sections of this LitChart. other societies symbolically fetter themselves to their own lust
for gold. Ultimately More presents gold as a proud, idle metal:
nothing useful comes of it, and it can’t be made into anything
THE GARDEN AND THE ISLAND
useful. We might think, as the Utopians no doubt do, that any
The garden and the island are two interrelated society that considers gold to be valuable is a wicked society
symbols in Utopia. The former represents human indeed. Raphael Hythloday, for one, would agree; he thinks that
work and desire imposed onto, and in harmony with, the the principle condition which gives rise to gold-lust is the
natural world. It also represents the idea of Paradise, where institution of private property, which in his account turns
people live in perfection and happiness, just as Adam and Eve people into ravenous getters and debauched spenders. The
did in the Garden of Eden before disobeying God. In Utopia Utopians, however, have killed pride and idleness by abolishing
itself, Raphael Hythloday presents his dialogue of counsel and private property. When everyone has what they need,
discourse on Utopia while sitting with Thomas More and Peter materially and spiritually, they have no need of vain
Giles in More’s garden in Antwerp. It is as though these men, superfluities like gold.
through learning, virtue, and philosophical inquiry, have been
restored, if only temporarily, to Eden, there to meditate on the
ideal society (Utopia, of course, also comes to read as an QUO
QUOTES
TES
earthly reflection of the Heavenly Jerusalem, the perfect City
of God in Heaven). The Utopians themselves, moreover, follow Note: all page numbers for the quotes below refer to the
their founder Utopus in finely caring for their gardens, and this Oxford University Press edition of Three Early Modern
is one of their highest pleasures. They are, More is suggesting, Utopias published in 2009.
closer to Paradise than their proud, warlike counterparts in
Europe. The connection between the garden and Paradise is Book 1 Quotes
finally strengthened by the fact that Utopia is located off the
Nothing is more easy to be found than barking Scyllas,
coast of the New World, that is, the Americas, which Europeans
ravening Calaenos, and Laestrygons, devourers of people, and
optimistically imagined to be the site of the Garden of Eden.
suchlike great and incredible monsters. But to find citizens
While Utopia is perhaps a kind of Paradise, it is also an island, ruled by good and wholesome laws, that is an exceeding rare
which represents its disconnection from other societies as well and hard thing.
as from the violence of human history. Utopia is physically apart
from other lands, just as it is spiritually apart from them. In fact,
the land Utopia is founded on was once connected to a Related Characters: Thomas More (speaker), Raphael
mainland, but Utopus had a channel fifteen miles wild dug Hythloday
between the two, perhaps because he knew that, otherwise,
the Utopians would either be conquered by others or Related Themes:
corrupted. Compare this with Hythloday’s claim that the good
Page Number: 14
philosopher must be disconnected from the governments of
men if he’s to preserve his sanity and virtue. By setting his Explanation and Analysis
Utopia on an island, More is suggesting that Utopia is, at least
More (the character, as opposed to the author) is speaking
for now, too fragile an ideal to be connected to real places
with Raphael Hythloday, a traveler who seeks wisdom, and
inhabited by real people. Utopia will rejoin the mainland only
can be read as a mixture of Plato and Ulysses. More asks
when the world is ready to become a utopia, and the Garden of
Hythloday about the places he has been, the people who
Eden will grow again only when it can grow everywhere.

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Let not so many be brought up in idleness; let husbandry
inhabited them, and how those people governedthemselves. and tillage be restored; let clothworking be renewed, that
More prides himself on not asking Hythloday about there may be honest labours for this idle sort to pass their time
whether or not he encounteredany monsters. in profitably, which hitherto either poverty hath caused to be
In pointing this out, the text parodies the genre of travel thieves, or else now be either vagabonds or idle serving men,
narration, which usually relies on bombastic adventures and and shortly will be thieves.
terrible beasts for entertainment value.Here, More (the
author) pokes fun at people who read about the world for Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker)
entertainment rather than for insights into how they can
better their societies and themselves. He is also making an Related Themes:
ironic jab at the princes and aristocracies of Europe: they
are the monsters so easy to find, those that cannibalize their Page Number: 24
own societies.
Explanation and Analysis
Hythloday and the lawyer continue their discussion of
justice. Hythloday has been expanding on the many social
Provision should have been made [in England], so that no
ills in England that create thievesout of men who could be
man should be driven to this extreme necessity, first to
dependable and responsiblecitizensif the society were
steal and then to die.
better structured.
Here, Hythloday makes an argument that idleness is one of
Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker), A
the most dangerous symptoms of a poorly functioning
Lawyer
society, as well as an open door to further criminal and anti-
social behavior. A thief, after all, must have been "brought
Related Themes:
up in idleness," or else they would know a trade and be able
Page Number: 19 to provide for themselves.
Hythloday calls for a renewal of essential trades: taking care
Explanation and Analysis of animals, working the land, and weaving. These, he argues,
Here, Hythloday recalls a conversation he had with a will give idle men, who currently pass their time as
cunning lawyer about justice. Their conversation centers on "vagabonds or idle serving-men" something profitable to do
the example of the thief, who, in Europe, is hanged for his with their time that benefits them as well as their society.
crimes. Hythloday argues that this punishment is extreme
and inappropriatefor the crime. Indeed, Hylthloday thinks
that the crime of stealing is motivated by "extreme
It is against the dignity of a king to have rule over beggars,
necessity" as opposed to a base desire to do bad things. As
but rather over rich and wealthy men.
such, the thief who steals to keep themselves or their family
alive is more a victim than a criminal - their society has failed
them by leaving them unable to earn a living, and then it fails Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker)
them twice over when it executes them for acting on their
only available chance at survival. Related Themes:
This scene can be read as a sort of “parable” in which the Page Number: 39
various characters exemplify what Hythloday sees as the
wrongs of European society. The lawyer and Hythloday Explanation and Analysis
have two conflicting ideas of justice. The lawyer thinks that Hythloday is considering the possibility of being a counselor
justice is the law being effectively enforced, while to a king, as his guests have suggested that he would
Hythloday thinks that justice is the organization of a society excelat. Hythloday begins to imagine what his fellow
such that people don’t have any need to break the law in the counselorswould advise a king to do, and makes arguments
first place. The lawyer’s view, in contrast to Hythloday’s, against their hypothetical advice.
seems merciless, inhumane, and ultimately ineffective.
Here, Hythloday is arguing against the idea that poverty
makes men too weak to behave badly or rebel, and so it can
be considered in a king's best interest to keep his subjects

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poor. However, Hythloday points out that all great philosophy." He argues that philosophy must have a place in
revolutions begin in dissatisfaction. If a person has nothing governance - but that it must "know its place and not
to lose, they are much more likely to be desperate and digress." The end of this kind of philosophy would be to turn
violent. He goes to point out that it is pathetic and below the "very bad" into the "merely bad." More then says that "It
their "dignity" for a king to "rule over beggars." This kind of is not possible for all things to be well unless all men are
rule is better suited to a jailer. good," a statement that is complicated by the fact that More
Irrational princes who do everything they can to control feels that most men are bad, and as such, it will be a while
their people will ironically bring about revolutions in their yet before all men can be "good." We might imagine that
realm. More includes himself among the ranks of men who need to
become good before a utopia can be realized.
More also points out that school philosophy need not be
This school philosophy is not unpleasant among friends in presented in an overly systematic way. It can be made
familiar communication, but in the council of kings, where entertaining—just as Utopia presents philosophical ideas in
the entertaining form of the travel narrative. If the world
great matters be debated and reasoned with great authority,
can’t be perfect, at least it can be better than it is.
these things have no place.

Related Characters: Thomas More (speaker), Raphael Book 2: Discourse on Utopia Quotes
Hythloday
Utopus…even at his first arriving and entering upon the
Related Themes: land [which was to become Utopia], forthwith obtaining the
victory [over the natives], caused fifteen miles space of
Page Number: 41 uplandish ground, where the sea had no passage, to be cut and
digged up. And so brought the sea round about the land.
Explanation and Analysis
"School philosophy" is used here to refer to academic Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker), Utopus
philosophy divorced from the context of real life. Here,
More and Hylthoday agree that school philosophy is Related Themes:
pleasant and educational when friends are discussing
issues, but that the use of it is notpractical in Europe as it is. Related Symbols:
The "council of kings" is too much concerned with the real-
life contexts of the country and people under their rule, and Page Number: 50
as such, school philosophy would strike them as frivolous
and naive. Explanation and Analysis
However, the two men leave open the possibility that in a In Book II, Hythloday speaks in detail about Utopia,
better world, where people are open-minded and beginning with its geography. Although Utopia is currently
interested in the public good, school philosophy does have a an island, it was not always so.
place in governance. In fact, the founder of Utopia, Utopus, arrived and
conquered the native people of the land and put them to
work digging up the land surrounding Utopia to create an
It is not possible for all things to be well unless all men island. This story about how Utopia was founded and
were good. created is very telling - the fact that Utopia is an island is
especially revealing of Utopia's disconnect from the rest of
the world, and of the difficulties of ever arriving at Utopia.
Related Characters: Thomas More (speaker)
It might be surprising to learn that Utopus formed his ideal
Related Themes: society only after conquering another people—although this
may be metaphorical, meaning that our hearts must submit
Page Number: 42 to the utopian spirit before we can build a utopia, in a way it
seems disingenuous to found a free, just society on the
Explanation and Analysis subjugation of others. (Like, arguably, America and some
Here, More continues to consider the question of "school European nations.)

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Utopus presumably formed the island of Utopia to protect Explanation and Analysis
his ideal society from external corruptions. This purposeful
disconnection makes it easier for a utopia to develop, but it In Utopian society, there is no private property. Instead,
also renders it unrelatable to the outside world and everything is communal, including the houses. In this
divorced from many of the historical troubles that real passage, we learn that every house has two doors which are
societies must deal with. easy to open, and, most importantly, are never locked. As
the passage goes on to say, there is no point in locking your
doors when you do not own anything inside of the house.
Book 2: Of Their Towns, Particularly of Amaurote This detail is borrowed from Plato's Republic, and
Quotes reflectstheUtopians’ absolute commitment to collective
ownership of all resources. The foundation of their society,
As for their [the Utopians’] cities, whoso knoweth one of and its main divergence from all European societies, is the
them knoweth them all, they be all so like one to another as far abolition of private property. Hythloday argues that this
forth as the nature of the place permitteth. lack of possessiveness among the Utopians leads to their
general trust and neighborliness.
Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker)

Related Themes: They set great store by their gardens. In them they have
vineyards, all manner of fruit, herbs, and flowers, so
Page Number: 52
pleasant, so well furnished, and so finely kept, that I never saw
Explanation and Analysis thing more fruitful nor better trimmed in any place.
All of the cities in Utopia are almost identical to one another
- if you've been to one, then you know them all. Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker)
This uniformity among the cities reflects the values and
virtues of the citizens of Utopia. Being alike to one another Related Themes:
is of utmost importance - just like their cities are identical,
so everyone who lives in every city believes in the same Related Symbols:
values, and acts according to the same civic plan. It is clear
that the citizens of Utopia and Hythloday consider this Page Number: 54
uniformity a recipe for a calm, just, and efficient country. Explanation and Analysis
There is no allowance for diversity or variety in Utopia, The garden is an important symbol in Utopia, representing
however, which is unsettling. But Hytholday does not seem human work and desire imposed onto, and in harmony with,
to be disturbed by this lack - he essentially argues that the natural world. The people of Utopia are hard workers,
peace and prosperity for all is more important than and they clearly put a great deal of effort into their gardens,
creativity and individuality. keeping them "well furnished" and "trimmed." This
symbolizes the Utopian's simultaneous mastery over and
respect for the natural world.
Every house hath two doors… These doors be made with In caring for their gardens so attentively, the Utopians
two leaves never locked nor bolted, so easy to be opened, follow the traditions of their country's founder, Utopus, who
that they will follow the least drawing of a finger, and shut again dedicated himself to gardening.
alone. Whoso will may go in, for there is nothing within the
The focus on the importance of the garden in Utopian
houses that is private or any man’s own.
society also suggests Paradise, where people live in
perfection and happiness, just like Adam and Eve in the
Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker) Garden of Eden. The Utopians are, More is suggesting,
closer to Paradise than their proud, warlike counterparts in
Related Themes: Europe. The connection between the garden and Paradise is
finally strengthened by the fact that Utopia is located off
Page Number: 54 the coast of the New World, that is, the Americas, which
Europeans optimistically imagined to be the site of the

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Garden of Eden. This is because these other societies are obsessed with
money, which creates a market for superfluous and false
pleasures as opposed to necessary, hearty products.
Book 2: Of Their Trades, and Manner of Life Because the Utopians have abolished private property, they
Quotes (supposedly) have no interest in luxury goods, and therefore
Husbandry is a science common to them all [the Utopians] they have no need for occupations other than those that
in general, both men and women, where they be all expert and serve essential functions.
cunning. In this they be all instructed even from their youth, As such, everyone shares the minimal amount of work, and,
partly in their schools with traditions and precepts, and partly because everyone works, nobody is forced to work more
in the country nigh the city, brought up, as it were in playing, than anyone else. Note that this does not imply the absence
not only beholding the use of it, but by occasion of exercising of beauty or art in Utopia—their houses and churches are
their bodies practising it also. gorgeous, and they love music—but there seems to be no
“art for art’s sake,” as such things are meant primarily as a
distracting pleasure, not a way of life valuable in itself.
Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker)

Related Themes:
Book 2: Of Their Traffic Quotes
Page Number: 56 They [the Utopians] begin every dinner and supper of
reading something that pertaineth to good manners and virtue.
Explanation and Analysis
But it is short, because no man shall be grieved therewith.
Equality in labor is necessary for an equal society, and many
hands make light work. As such, all Utopians learn how to
farm and tend to animals, in addition to their individual Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker)
trades. This ensures that everyone in the society has work
Related Themes:
to fall back on. Additionally, in the case of an emergency like
a famine, theoretical and practical knowledge of husbandry Page Number: 67
would come in handy.
Learning to farm is not only necessary, but it alsohas an Explanation and Analysis
enjoyable, social component - Utopian children are Here, Hythloday tells More that all Utopian citizens eat
"brought up" farming "as it were in playing," and in addition together in large dining halls, as opposed to eating alone in
to the obvious practicality of the lessons, they treat it like their homes. This is because they appreciate and enjoy their
wholesome "exercise." community - a people that live in interchangeable cities tend
to act as a group. Before they eat, they listen to a reading of
some virtuous text.
Now consider with yourself of these few that do work [in The fact that these texts are always very briefis a revealing
countries other than Utopia], how few be occupied in moment of good humor and practicality—the people of
necessary works. For where money beareth all the swing, there Utopia, practical as they are, understand that it’s hard to
many vain and superfluous occupations must needs be used, to focus when one is hungry. They also enrich the necessity of
serve only for riotous superfluity and unhonest pleasure. eating with unnecessary, harmless pleasures, squeezing as
much enjoyment as they can out of their free time.
Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker)
Gold and silver, whereof money is made, they [the
Related Themes: Utopians] do so use as none of them doth more esteem it
than the very nature of the thing deserveth. And then who doth
Page Number: 59 not plainly see how far it is under iron, as without the which
Explanation and Analysis men can no better live than without fire and water?

Here, Hythloday draws More's attention to societies

outside of Utopia, where not everycitizen works, and those Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker)
that do work tend not to do "necessary work," like farming.

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Utopians are also disturbed by the fact that, in many

Related Themes:
societies, money seems to be a stand-in for virtue and
intelligence. In Europe, an idiot will be well-respected if he is
Related Symbols: rich. This is a perversion of the Utopians' most cherished
values of hard work and self-improvement. Instead of
Page Number: 70 working hard and enriching their society, rich men and
Explanation and Analysis women are free to be idle and live off the work of others.
Thus, introducing gold and money into a society is a
In these lines, we learn about one of the most striking
poisonous practice as it enables people to avoid work and
details of Utopian society: their disdain for gold and other
public service.
precious metals and gems that European society so
cherishes. Hythloday explains that their disdain is born out
of practicality: you cannot do much with gold and silver
other than make coins and jewelry. Both metals are seen as The chief and principal question [for the Utopians] is in
being infinitely inferior to "iron," which is as essential as "fire what thing, be it one or more, the felicity of man
and water" to the Utopians. consisteth. But in this point they seem almost too much given
and inclined to the opinion of them which defend pleasure,
The Utopians are attracted to gold, much like Europeans,
wherein they determine either all or the chiefest part of man’s
but they fight their attraction by making only loathsome
felicity to rest.
things out of the metal: chamber pots, fetters for slaves, and
jewelry meant to shame wrong-doers. Similarly, Utopians
gives precious stones and jewels to their children to play Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker)
withso that the children will come to think of these things as
immature and embarrassing when they are grown. These Related Themes:
efforts on the part of the Utopians reveal that they have the
same instinctual interest in gold and preciousstones, but Page Number: 76
unlike the Europeans who give into that instinct, the Explanation and Analysis
Utopians fight it in the name of a healthy society.
Hythloday has been discussing the Utopian position on
philosophy. Although they were ignorant of many of the
most famous philosophers due to their isolation, the
They [the Utopians] marvel also that gold, which of its own Utopians still managed to come to a lot of the same
nature is a thing so unprofitable, is now among all people in conclusions.
so high estimation, that man himself, by whom, yea, and for the
The main philosophical question that the Utopians are
use of whom, it is so much set by, is in much less estimation
engaged with, however, is in what "the felicity of man
than the gold itself.
consisteth," or, how best to be happy. Boiled down, the
Utopians are hedonists: they believe that pleasure is the
Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker) most important thing in life.
Hythloday’s account of Utopian philosophy is notoriously
Related Themes:
confused. He gently disapproves of the Utopians’ love of
pleasure in this passage, yet we later learn that their chief
Related Symbols:
pleasures are of the mind—exercising virtue and good
conscience. Hythloday seems too bookish and dry to truly
Page Number: 74
relish intellectual activity as a form of pleasure.
Explanation and Analysis
The Utopians are well-aware of the status that gold holds in
other areas of the world, and they are confounded and They [the Utopians] embrace chiefly the pleasures of the
disturbed by the fact that a man's life is considered less mind, for them they count the chiefest and most principal
valuable than gold by many people in other countries. It is of all. The chief part of them they think doth come of the
imminentlypractical, as well as humane, for the Utopians to exercise of virtue and conscience of good life.
value human life over gold.
Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker)

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against God’s gift of life. The question arises then (here, as

Related Themes:
elsewhere): to what extent does the author of Utopia really
approve of Utopian policy?
Page Number: 83

Explanation and Analysis

Although the Utopians value pleasure above all things, we Now and then it chanceth whereas the man and the
might be surprised to learn how they define life's greatest woman [in a marriage] cannot well agree between
pleasures. They feel that the pleasures of the mind are the themselves, both of them finding other, with whom they hope
greatest to be had: virtue, education, and acting in good to live more quietly and merrily, that they by the full consent of
conscience. them both be divorced asunder and married again to other.
They also feel that a personcan become numb to these true
pleasures if they are inundated with "false pleasures," which Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker)
include the ownership of luxury items, gambling, and
hunting. This list of false pleasures is meant as a critique of Related Themes:
European society, which wrongly considers ownership of
these frivolous objects and engagement in harmful Page Number: 91
practices to be signs of "the good life."
Explanation and Analysis
The Utopian laws concerning marriage and sex are among
Book 2: Of Their Slaves, and of Their Marriages their most conservative, save for their divorce laws, which
are surprisinglylenient, and, as we will see, offer another
Quotes
moment of authorial ambiguity.
But if the disease [of a Utopian] be not only incurable, but
The Utopians strictly punish premarital sex, and they also
also full of continual pain and anguish, then the priests and the
insist that a man sees his future wife naked beforehe
magistrates exhort the man…that he will determine with
marries her, under the disturbing logic that one would not
himself no longer to cherish that pestilent and painful
buy a horse without having inspected itthoroughly. While
disease…but rather…either dispatch himself out of that painful
these laws are conservative, and, in the second case, sexist
life, as out of a prison or a rack of torment, or else suffer himself
and dehumanizing, the Utopian opinion on divorce is
willingly to be rid out of it by other.
surprisinglyopen. Although it is not common in Utopian
society, divorce is allowed and respected, which enables
Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker) Utopians to find partners that they can live with "more
quietly and merrily."
Related Themes:
Utopia’s policies concerning divorce are much more liberal
than those of More’s England at the time. Indeed, More
Page Number: 88
himself infuriated King Henry VIII when he refused to
Explanation and Analysis condone the King’s divorce—a moral stance that ultimately
Here, we learn that the Utopian health care system makes led to More being executed. It is surprisingand intriguing
allowances for assisted suicide, or euthanasia, in the cases that the author of Utopia, a land in which divorce is legal,
of people suffering from"pestilent and painful" terminal lost his life defending the eternal sanctity of marriage.
diseases. This is one of the most intriguingmoments in the
text, especially in light of the ambiguities it raises about
More's own opinions on Utopia. Book 2: Of Their Military Discipline Quotes
The Utopians’ conception of the public good is not one of War or battle as a thing very beastly, and yet to no kind of
ruthless productivity and efficiency—rather, it is one of beasts in so much use as to man, they [the Utopians] do detest
general welfare and happiness. Nowhere is this clearer than and abhor. And contrary to the custom almost of all other
in the Utopians’ health care system, which is centered on nations they count nothing so much against glory as glory
availability and excellence of care as well as compassion. gotten in war.
Note that the Catholic Church, of which the man Thomas
More was a part, strictly prohibits euthanasia as a crime Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker)

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effective policy for deterring future conflict, or whether it

Related Themes:
only stirs up more anger and strife.
Page Number: 97

Explanation and Analysis Book 2: Of the Religions of the Utopians Quotes

Here, Hythloday explains that Utopians "detest and abhor" Though they [the Utopians] be in divers opinions, yet in
warfare, and consider it subhuman - it is a beastlyactivity, this point they agree all together with the wisest sort in
and not even wild beasts go to war, after all. To this end, believing that there is one chief and principal God, the maker
when the Utopians do go to war (and they are prepared to and ruler of the world… For every one of them, whatsoever that
fight - they practice military drills daily, out of practicality) is which he taketh for the chief God, thinketh it to be the very
they do not do so to become richer. And, if they do gain by same nature to whose only divine might and majesty the sum
going to war, then they consider their "glories" to be more and sovereignty of all things by the consent of all people is
disgraceful than glorifying. attributed and given.
The reasons that the Utopians will go to war include:
settling trade disputes, avenging wrongs, and delivering Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker)
people from tyranny. Although these motivations sound
reasonable, it is strange that Utopians, who value human life Related Themes:
more than gold, would kill people over trade disputes.
Stranger still that they would not consider the potential Page Number: 107
fallout of "delivering" an oppressed people.
Explanation and Analysis
Religion is the last topic that Hylthloday covers during his
and More's discussion on Utopia, and it is one of the most
Their [the Utopians’] chief and principal purpose in war is
intriguing and ambiguousof the sections. We remember
to obtain that thing, which if they had before obtained,
that More, the man, actively fought against religious
they would not have moved battle. But if that be not possible,
freedom in his time, and even supported the torture of
they take so cruel vengeance of them which be in the fault, that
Protestants.
ever after they be afeard to do the like.
Utopian society is marked by radical freedom of religion -
different citizens are free to worship whichever god they
Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker) choose without fear of persecution.
Related Themes: This diversity of religious thought is united by a few central
tenents, outlined in this passage. They believe that God is
Page Number: 98 eternal, incomprehensible, and inexplicable, dispersed
throughout the world as power and virtue. He is the creator
Explanation and Analysis of all things and the end of all things.All Utopians, despite
The Utopians love health and respect human life, so it diverging opinions on the form God takes, nonetheless
makes good sense that they would rather satisfy their agree that there is one chief and principal Supreme Being,
objectives through intelligence than through blood. When the maker and ruler of the world, and this Being they call
the Utopians do decide to go to battle, they do not do so to Mithras (a Persian god, worshipped in Rome as the god of
gain spoils or conquer other countries. Instead, they are the sun).
focused, practical, and controlled - they keep in mind the However, the deeper suggestion here is that the Utopians
single object that motivated them to fight in the first place. understand all gods to be images of one common truth.
To this end, Utopians prefer to "fight dirty," that is, to make (Unsurprisingly, given More’s Catholic convictions, this
use of propaganda and rewards for defectors. These tactics truth sounds like what’s endorsed by Catholic theology.)
are meant to minimize bloodshed. However, as we see in The Utopians apparently find the majority’s idea of God
these lines, sometimes the Utopians are called upon to take most compelling, however, for they are adopting it of their
"cruel vengeance" on their enemies in an effort to stop own free will.
further fighting.
This another moment of ambiguity - history forces us to
question whether being cruel to one’s enemies is really an

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He [Utopus] made a decree that it should be lawful for
every man to favour and follow what religion he would, Page Number: 121
and that he might do the best he could to bring other to his
opinion, so that he did it peaceably, gently, quietly, and soberly, Explanation and Analysis
without hasty and contentious rebuking and inveighing against In the concluding section of the text, Hythloday begins
other. explicitlycomparing Utopia to European society. Here, he
claims that Utopia is the best commonwealth in the world,
Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker) and also the only one worthy of the name "commonwealth,"
as all things are equal in Utopia.
Related Themes: He then goes on to consider other "flourish[ing]"
commonwealths, which he feels are ironically named - after
Page Number: 109 all, they are really just conspiracies "of rich men" who exploit
Explanation and Analysis the poor "under the name and title of commonwealth."

Hythloday continues to outline the religiousfreedom that The main difference between these sham commonwealths
marks Utopian society. Not only are all religions allowed, and Utopia is private property and the use of money. By
and none discriminated against, but the Utopians also are getting rid of money, Hythloday argues, Utopians have
against violent proselytizing (attempting to convert pulled up evil by its root. Hythloday relates this to Christ's
someone to your religion). Here, we learn that Utopians are teachings against private property, which he says that
free to try and convince one another to convert to a European societies are too prideful to follow.
different religion so long as they are respectful and "gentle"
in their efforts.
The moment that the conversation turns angry and As I cannot agree and consent to all things that he
"contentious," the aggressive party will be punished with [Hythloday] said…so must I needs confess and grant that
exile or bondage. This harsh treatment is, like all things in many things be in the Utopian weal-public which in our cities I
Utopia, based in practicality. After all, religious tolerance may rather wish for than hope after.
was instituted by Utopus himself when he observed how
religious disagreement caused strife among the natives of Related Characters: Thomas More (speaker), Raphael
the island—and was what enabled his conquest of them in Hythloday
the first place. Maintainingthat peace requires that no one
be bullied into changing their beliefs. Related Themes:
Thomas More, the man, was a devout Catholic who, during
the Reformation, tortured Protestants and approved of Page Number: 123
burning them at the stake as heretics. It is darkly ironic, Explanation and Analysis
then, that his utopian vision should be one in which people
At the very end of the text, More invites Hythloday in for
who condemn other religions are subject to exile or
dinner and says that they will discuss and evaluate Utopian
bondage.
society at a later time. Here, More tells us that he does not
agree with all of Hythloday's points, but that he does wish
for many Utopian features to be realized in European
Book 2: Conclusion Quotes
society. This can only be a "wish," however, as More feels
When I consider and weigh in my mind all these that it is deeply unrealistic to hope that these changes will
commonwealths which nowadays anywhere do flourish, so God be put into effect.
help me, I can perceive nothing but a certain conspiracy of rich
More’s response to Hythloday’s account of Utopia is never
men procuring their own commodities under the name and title
presented to us, and so all our questions are left
of commonwealth.
unanswered. This ending adds to the sense of the work as a
“joke” or a playful satire, but perhaps the suggestion is also
Related Characters: Raphael Hythloday (speaker) that we as readers are responsible for conducting that
dialogue among ourselves. The text requires that we reason
Related Themes: for ourselves about Utopia, and what system of governing
might be best for an ideal society. This is, after all, the first
step we all must take before any utopia can become a

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reality.

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SUMMARY AND ANAL

ANALYSIS
YSIS
The color-coded icons under each analysis entry make it easy to track where the themes occur most prominently throughout the
work. Each icon corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart.

BOOK 1
Thomas More the character sets the stage for Utopia by More frames Utopia with an account of a mission that Thomas
recounting how he was sent by King Henry VIII of England as More, the historical figure, really did undertake, thus adding a sense
an ambassador to the Netherlands, along with several other of reality to the fictional elements of his work. He wants us at once
excellent men. Their mission is to negotiate with a Flemish to believe in, and to interrogate the reality of, his discourse on
commission organized by Charles, the King of Castile, Utopia. That the English mission concerns the wool trade gives a
concerning the English wool trade. The commissions meet once historical context for Hythloday’s critique of the wool trade to come.
or twice without arriving at any full agreement. Consequently,
the Flemish travel to Brussels for further instructions from
their prince, during which time More travels to Antwerp.

While living in Antwerp, More befriends an honest, learned More’s friendship with Giles serves as a model in the text for how
citizen of that city: Peter Giles. More finds Giles’s conversation people in society should relate to one another, a kind of ideal
both merry and pleasant, and it makes More feel less homesick community in miniature. That More misses his wife reminds us,
to have such an entertaining new friend, even though he’s been however, of the practical human needs that impinge on such ideals.
away from his wife and children for four months at this point.

One day, while returning to his house in Antwerp after a church Hythloday is pure invention, but his having sailed with a historical
service, More runs into Giles, who is speaking with an old, figure, Amerigo Vespucci, lends credibility to his stories. Hythloday’s
sunburned, long-bearded, and cloaked stranger from Portugal; strange appearance suggests how his experiences abroad have
this man is named Raphael Hythloday. More takes him to be a transformed him into something of a sage or prophet. He resembles
mariner. Giles exclaims that he was just about to escort Odysseus in that he has been everywhere in his quest for
Hythloday to More’s lodgings for a meeting, because the old knowledge, and he resembles Plato in the sense that he not only has
man is well-traveled and knows much about the world, broad practical knowledge but also has high theoretical knowledge
especially foreign peoples and countries. However, Hythloday about the world.
turns out to be not so much a mariner (though he did travel
with Amerigo Vespucci) as a person in quest of knowledge, like
the Greek hero Ulysses and the philosopher Plato.

More, Giles, and Hythloday go to More’s house and sit in the In the Biblical tradition, a paradisiacal garden is imagined as
garden where Hythloday tells of his travels. During one surrounding the City of God in Heaven, and it is therefore a fitting
voyage, he says, he received Vespucci’s permission to stay location for three virtuous people to contemplate the perfect cities
behind and explore the East for himself. After many days spent of Utopia. Hythloday’s travels took him to the New World, the
crossing scorching deserts and wilderness, Hythloday and his Americas, by way of sub-equatorial Asia. The lodestone is a
companions came upon well-governed people, cities, and cautionary image for the book as a whole: just as the lodestone can
towns. Ships gladly welcomed Hythloday and his companions help people navigate the sea, so can Utopia help us navigate the
aboard, and they were consequently able to visit many nearby difficulties of governing well; but to become too confident in such a
countries. Hythloday even introduced some sailors to the use guide is also to court disaster.
of the lodestone, a magnet used in navigation. More, however,
suggests that sailors have so much confidence in the lodestone
that they become reckless and expose themselves to danger.

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More and Giles are especially curious about how the peoples More the author parodies the genre of the travel narrative
Hythloday encountered are governed, and they ask him many throughout his work. Here he pokes fun at people who read about
questions on this point. More is also quick to point out that the world for entertainment rather than for insights into how they
they don’t ask Hythloday any questions about monsters, can better their societies and themselves. He is also making an
because monsters, like Scylla from Homer’s Odyssey and ironic jab at the princes and aristocracies of Europe: they are the
cannibals, are easy to find, whereas people ruled by good and monsters so easy to find, those that cannibalize their own societies.
wholesome laws are not. Of all the societies Hythloday
presents, however, More is “determined to rehearse only that
he told us…of the Utopians” (from the Greek meaning
“nowhere”).

Peter Giles is so impressed by Hythloday that he strongly Hythloday’s character is entangled in ambiguities. If his learning
encourages him to go into the service of a prince as his and wisdom can’t be put into his nation’s service, just how valuable
counselor, for the prince, the nation, and Hythloday’s own is it really? We might also wonder whether it’s a touch hypocritical
friends and family would benefit from Hythloday’s profound that Hythloday later praises the family-like communities of Utopia
learning and wisdom. Hythloday counters that he has done while he himself says here that he’s done enough for his own family;
enough for his friends and family as it is, having long ago given the Utopians would probably be displeased by such an attitude.
them most of his belongings. As such, he would not “give More captures such ambiguities nicely in Hythloday’s name:
[himself] in bondage unto kings” on their account. Peter says he “Hythloday” likely means something like “kindler of nonsense,” and
does not mean bondage at all; Hythloday could become very yet ”Raphael” is the Biblical angel who helps mankind understand
wealthy by serving in a king’s court. Hythloday, again, has a the ways of God.
counter: wealth stands in opposition to his own principles and
nature. He values the liberty to follow his own thoughts and
pleasures too much to serve a prince.

More, for his part, encourages Hythloday to go into a prince’s Whereas Peter Giles suggests that Hythloday serve a prince out of
service not for wealth but to contribute to the public good. self-interest, More suggests that he serve a prince out of self-
Hythloday responds, first, that he does not possess the ability sacrifice. But Hythloday suggests that the whole system of
to fill a prince’s head with truth and virtue, because princes are governance in Europe is so corrupt, and that people are so proud,
more interested in chivalry, war, and conquest than good that such self-sacrifice would be in vain anyway. It would be a waste
governance. Second, counselors prefer the ideas they to serve a king, to Hythloday’s mind.
themselves invent to all others, and therefore attempt to fault
the ideas of their peers, no matter how good, which means that
their best decrees “‘lie unexecuted.’”

More asks Hythloday if he’s been to England. Hythloday says The circumstances of Hythloday’s visit to England are significant:
he has, and he stayed there for four or five months, shortly the Cornish rebellion signifies the bloody, wasteful effects of bad
after a Cornish rebellion—which was motivated by governance in general. It is ironic that such atrocities occur in
overtaxation—was bloodily put down in 1497. Hythloday spent countries governed by people as good as Cardinal Morton—but
much of his time in England in the company of Cardinal John Hythloday later suggests that even good people working in corrupt
Morton, whom More served as a page in boyhood and whom systems can’t help but fail to do good.
Hythloday describes as upright, reverent, gentle, wise, and
eloquent—an excellent administrator of policy and law.

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One day, while sitting at Cardinal Morton’s table, Hythloday fell This scene begins a sort of “parable” in which the various characters
into discussion with a cunning lawyer concerning English law. at Morton’s table exemplify what Hythloday sees as the wrongs of
The lawyer praises the rigorous justice executed upon felons European society. The lawyer and Hythloday have two conflicting
and especially thieves at that time, for many were hanged for ideas of justice. The lawyer thinks that justice is the law being
their crimes and few escaped punishment. Hythloday effectively enforced, while Hythloday thinks that justice is the
disagrees: death is “‘too extreme and cruel a punishment for organization of a society such that people don’t have any need to
theft’,” he says. He also argues that people who resort to break the law in the first place. The lawyer’s view, in contrast to
thievery are forced into it by having no other way of getting Hythloday’s, seems merciless, inhumane, and ultimately ineffective.
their living. Instead of executing thieves, he says, England
should make it so that the thieves can live by honest work
instead.

Hythloday claims, moreover, that he’s not just referring to Hythloday’s critique is directed at the feudal structure of English
people who can’t work because they’ve been maimed and society, where the rich who own property live extravagantly by the
lamed by fighting on behalf of their nation in the wars. He is sweat of their workers’ brows. Earlier in feudal England, landlords
referring to people who can’t work for more commonplace maintained private armies, but by More’s time this practice had
reasons. First, Hythloday says, there are a great number of idle largely diminished into the maintenance of serving men more for
gentlemen who live by exploitatively raising their tenants’ rent the sake of social prestige than for warfare.
and who hire serving men to proudly show off the wealth of
their estates. But these serving men never learn any craft, and
they become as idle as their lords.

Hythloday continues: once these serving men’s lords die, or Many humanists like More and Erasmus (More’s friend) argued
once they themselves fall ill and are thrust out to get their living against feudalism as irrational, exploitative, and unchristian.
independently, serving men have no choice but to “‘manfully Hythloday mounts just such an argument here. Notice that it is the
play the thieves’,” lest they starve. What choice do they have? pride and rapacious self-satisfaction of the landlords which breeds
After being thrust out, the men wear their clothes threadbare idleness among the lower classes of society—Hythloday will later
and become sickly, which makes it unlikely that another master indict pride specifically as the root of all evil. The Utopians, in
will take them into service. Moreover, farmers dare not put contrast to the English, train everyone in useful crafts.
them to work either, knowing that such men do not have the
temperament or discipline to do hard work for small wages.

The lawyer responds that England should cherish these The lawyer cannot or will not imagine society organized in any other
pampered, out-of-work serving men, for they are stouter and way than it presently is, and so he praises the army for solving the
more courageous than craftsmen and farmers tend to be, and problem of idleness (although he doesn’t respond at all to
they make up the whole strength of the English army as such. Hythloday’s point that England hangs so many thieves because it
Hythloday agrees that, when such out-of-work serving men breeds so many thieves). The more imaginative Hythloday
don’t become thieves, they do tend to become soldiers, but he understands the army to be an even greater evil than the problem it
finds it troubling that England must cherish its thieves for war’s supposedly solves.
sake.

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Moreover, Hythloday observes that in all nations, but especially The course of Hythloday’s argument suggests that a few social
in France, having a standing army in peacetime is bad policy. arrangements, like landlords keeping serving men, cause a huge host
Nations don’t like sending unpracticed soldiers into battle, and of widespread evils to arise. The tolerance of pride corrupts English
so they provide practice by seeking out unnecessary wars. society absolutely. His argument also suggests how the lawyer’s
Standing armies of mercenaries or slaves also have a history of reflex patriotism is ironically connected to his nation’s deficiencies,
turning against the countries that support them. Finally, as for the lawyer praises the English army even though standing
France’s military record in wars with England would suggest, armies, it would seem, pose more dangers to a country than they
practiced soldiers don’t even have an advantage over deter.
unpracticed ones. Hythloday thinks that men who have a craft
tend to be stouter and sturdier than gentlemen’s serving men
who are softened by idleness anyway.

Hythloday introduces a second cause of thievery in England. In a self-interested effort to maximize their own profits, noblemen,
For the sake of reaping huge profits in the wool trade, gentlemen, and churchmen harm the society of which they’re part,
noblemen, gentlemen, and even churchmen tear down houses which is especially egregious of the churchmen, for their predatory
and towns to pasture their sheep on what could otherwise be actions directly cut against Christian teachings. Keep in mind that
farmland, thereby making it impossible for people to live on and More the character is in the Netherlands to promote the English
work the land. The farmers who are cheated or oppressed out wool trade, which colors Hythloday’s critique here with ambiguity: if
of their land often get nothing for it, or for their household More the man buys into what Hythloday is saying, it would seem
stuff. After wandering the country and spending all they have, that he values public service over his own principles.
they inevitably turn to theft, having no other way to get their
living, and then they are hanged. Those who beg instead are
often imprisoned; in any case, they can’t contribute to the
public good either.

The decay of farming causes yet other problems, in Hythloday’s Hythloday is methodical in making his case: after showing how the
account: food shortages and a spike in the price of wool, which English wool trade causes idleness even in the best of times, he now
makes it so that poor people can no longer afford to buy wool shows how disastrous the wool trade can be in times of emergency.
and make cloth from it. This problem was further exacerbated, He also suggests that the rapacity of the upper classes is boundless,
Hythloday recalls, by the death of many English sheep due to when he foresees the exploitation of the cattle industry. His point is
an epidemic of sheep rot, which only made wool harder to get. that small evils, when tolerated, grow into very big evils. Perhaps he
This, again, results in people being forced out of work into values Utopian society so highly because it tolerates no pride or self-
idleness, and only a few greedy people profit. Hythloday also interest.
foresees similar problems arising when “utter covetousness”
leads noblemen and gentlemen to exploit the cattle industry as
they’ve already done with the sheep industry.

Making matters even worse, according to Hythloday, is the fact Legal and economic conditions have more than just legal or
that beggary and poverty are often accompanied by debauched economic consequences: bad laws and policies also lead, perhaps
drinking, decadent excess, the soliciting of prostitutes, and most significantly, to the degeneracy of a society, to wasteful
gambling among those not reduced to poverty, like serving entertainment and vicious character. Notice that Hythloday does
men, craftsmen, and farmers. Hythloday calls for a law that will not blame individuals for the state of England; he blames the
force the people who despoiled farmland to restore it, and he organization of society as a whole. In this sense, we are all
calls for an end to idleness. Until these problems are solved, he responsible for our neighbors’ actions.
says, justice will be mere show and not profitable, and children
will be brought up in sin. A society should not make thieves and
then punish them cruelly, Hythloday concludes.

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The lawyer tediously claims he will answer Hythloday, The lawyer’s tedious opening suggests that his own arguments
promising to rehearse each of his points in order and then come not from wisdom like Hythloday’s, but from pride: he likes to
counter all of Hythloday’s arguments. However, Cardinal hear himself talk. But we must also wonder whether Cardinal
Morton cuts him off: he doesn’t want to listen to such verbosity, Morton found Hythloday’s speech to be too long.
and would rather the lawyer save his answer for later.

Instead, Cardinal Morton asks Hythloday how he thinks thieves Instead of directly answering the Cardinal’s question, Hythloday
should be punished, if not by death. Hythloday responds that a begins by critiquing the death penalty in general. He gives moral,
man’s life is worth more than money, that cruel laws legal, religious, and rational arguments for his position, and even
disproportionate to the crime they’re punishing should not be plays on anti-Semitism by favorably comparing the laws of Moses to
tolerated, and that man’s law ought not to go against God’s English law (the insinuation is that Christians should be more
commandment against killing insofar as this is possible, lest merciful than Jews). An irony underlying these arguments is that
man usurp God’s power. Not even Moses’s sharp law punished More the man would go on to approve the deaths of many
theft with death, Hythloday points out. Moreover, thieves who Protestants as punishment for heresy in the years to come.
know they’ll be hanged for thieving and murder alike are more
likely to kill their witnesses, such that the death penalty for
theft perversely incentivizes murder.

Hythloday then turns to how thieves should be punished. He Hythloday sees the death penalty, fundamentally, as a waste of
points out that the Romans punished thieves and other human potential. He would rather make offenders useful, as slaves.
criminals by forcing them to serve the public good in stone We might find this cold or scandalous, but it is part and parcel of his
quarries and mines. Hythloday says that the (fictional) people program of eliminating idleness and waste. Note that the Polylerites
called the Polylerites (from the Greek meaning “nonsensical are not altogether humane: they are willing to resort to bodily
people”), whose fertile land is ringed in by mountains, punish punishment. We might wonder whether a society that can bring
thieves by forcing them to pay restitution to the victims of their itself to treat people like animals is altogether admirable, no matter
crimes, and also by forcing them to become common laborers, how “efficient” it might be.
or serving men. These laborers, humanely treated, are not
imprisoned or bound unless they refuse to work, in which case
they are also whipped.

Furthermore, Hythloday says, the serving men among the Hythloday brings up the Polylerites as an example of people who
Polylerites are distinguished from other citizens by the have done away with the death penalty, but it soon becomes clear
common color of their clothes and the fact that the tip of one of that they just “displace it, rendering it less visible,” in the words of
their ears is cut off. For them to receive money or weapons is one critic. It may be More the author’s point here that well-
death, for the receiver and giver alike; for a serving man to intentioned, idealistic principles—let’s abolish the death
throw away his distinct clothes or to run away is likewise death. penalty—cannot be practically institutionalized; we must always
For a free man to counsel a serving man to run away is compromise our principles if society is to function. Still, the
bondage; for a serving man to do so, death. Those who reveal Polylerites do seem more humane than the English, despite their
the plots of a runaway receive freedom or money, depending inconsistencies.
on whether they’re serving men or freemen, respectively. It is
always better for a runaway to repent and turn back than to “go
forward in their evil purpose.” Serving men can also achieve
freedom through hard work and patience.

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Hythloday concludes that the Polylerites’ treatment of thieves The lawyer responds to Hythloday’s nuanced argument with out-of-
is much more humane than England’s. He thinks that society hand dismissal. Even though he gives no reasoning, everyone
can be so organized that even bad people can’t help but to do ironically agrees with him at once. This suggests that Hythloday is
good. The lawyer at once counters that, were England to do as right in thinking that counselors think about arguments self-
the Polylerites do, the nation would fall into danger; he says no interestedly, not rationally. When Cardinal Morton announces his
more, but everyone present agrees with him except Cardinal sympathy to Hythloday’s case, however, all present contradict what
Morton. The Cardinal says proof is needed to decide either they said moments ago to praise him—mere flattery indeed. An idea
way, but he is sympathetic to Hythloday’s proposal and adds is praised not for its merit but for its maker.
that forcing even vagabonds into labor might benefit society.
Everyone at the table then praises what Hythloday had said;
the highest praise, however, is reserved for the Cardinal’s novel
point about vagabonds.

Hythloday then tells More and Giles about a joker at Cardinal The joker makes jokes for the sake of drawing attention to himself,
Morton’s table who tried to say witty things as a professional not for the sake of forming good law and policy. However, his playful
fool might, but more often than not his jokes were so belabored spirit seems preferable, in More’s eyes, to the deceptions of other
and out of sync with the conversation that people ended up counselors, for playfulness at least yields reason occasionally, and
laughing at him more than at his jokes. Once in a while, does little harm. If Utopia is one big literary hoax, perhaps its value
however, the joker did succeed in saying something very witty is similar to the joker’s.
and reasonable indeed.

One person at Cardinal Morton’s table says that, thanks to the It is a dark irony that even so good a leader as Cardinal Morton
proposals of Hythloday and the Cardinal, both thieves and should have for his tablemates not only flatterers but people so
vagabonds are taken care of in England—all that remains is to insensitive to the merit of ideas, so eager to please their betters, that
make provisions for the sick and old who have fallen into they accept jokes for earnest proposals. Or is the joker’s proposal
beggary. The joker proposes that beggars be forced into not so silly as it seems? One critic argues that the joker is here
monasteries and convents and made into lay brethren and making a virtuous Christian proposal, and that it is only because
nuns. The Cardinal smiles at this joke, but others at the table society is so corrupt that his proposal appears to be a joke. Then
uncritically accept the proposal in earnest. A usually very again, perhaps More the author is suggesting that our desire for
serious friar jests that, now that the joker has made provisions mere entertainment, like the joker’s jokes, debases intellectual
for beggars, he must make provisions for friars, too. The joker exchange.
retorts that the Cardinal’s provision for vagabonds (putting
them to work) applies to friars as well, for friars “‘be the veriest
vagabonds that be’,” in the joker’s words.

The joker’s mockery of friars is too much for the friar to bear, The friar’s anger is a symptom of his pride: he takes even a well-
and he is enraged. He chides, scolds, and curses the joker. The meaning joke as an insult. Moreover, his reference to scripture rings
joker scoffs very entertainingly and advises the friar to follow hollow as soon as he insinuates that the joker could be
the scripture in being patient. The friar maintains that he is excommunicated, or kicked out of the Church, for his mockery.
angry but that he is not sinning. Cardinal Morton calms the Ironically, in Utopia, it is the friar who would run the risk of exile for
friar and tells him not to debase his intelligence by arguing with causing trouble on religious grounds. In any case, as so often
a fool. The friar praises the Cardinal’s wisdom, but nonetheless happens, a trivial quarrel puts an end to intellectual exchange here.
insinuates that the joker could be excommunicated for his Hythloday’s ideals would fall on deaf ears in such an environment.
mockery. The Cardinal, seeing that the argument will not end,
sends the fool away, changes the subject, and soon after
dismisses all his company. Hythloday says that this story
suggests how little courtiers would value his counsel.

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Hythloday pardons himself for telling Thomas More and Peter Earlier, Cardinal More silenced the lawyer for verbosity; ironically,
Giles such a long tale. He says he did so only because it seemed however, it is Hythloday who talks almost non-stop in Utopia, even
as though his companions wanted to hear it all. He points out to the point of apologizing for it. As much as Hythloday is More’s
that all present at Cardinal Morton’s table that day disagreed mouthpiece, he is also a target of satire. He is overly systematic in
with his views on punishment until the Cardinal approved his arguments and he stifles true dialogue—both things humanists
them, which suggests that those men are impudent flatterers, like More fought against.
even to the point of accepting smiled-on jokes for earnest
proposals.

More thanks Hythloday for his tale, which was especially More the man really did serve in Cardinal Morton’s household. By
pleasant for him because he served Cardinal Morton in his interspersing fact in his fiction, he is teasing us: the possible and the
boyhood. More confesses that he hasn’t changed his mind on ideal are so close and yet so far, as is Utopia from our world.
one point, however: he believes that if Hythloday serves as the Hythloday’s story about his night at Cardinal Morton’s does not
counselor of a prince, he will greatly benefit his nation, which is persuade More that good counselors are always ineffective—after
nothing more than a good man’s duty. Only when philosophers all, how could Hythloday expect to effect change in policy
are kings or the counselors of kings will society become immediately over a casual conversation?
perfect, as Plato says.

Hythloday does not agree with More. He says that, unless kings Hythloday thinks that, unless leaders study philosophy, they won’t
themselves study philosophy seriously, they will not listen to be open to reason concerning what goals a good commonwealth
the counsel of philosophers. He imagines helping an empire- should set for itself. Instead they will do what comes naturally, from
building French king like Charles the VIII or Louis the VII wage pride and greed: they will go to war to take what isn’t theirs. Such a
his wars of conquest. All his fellow counselors would propose prince can’t be reasoned with, Hythloday fears, and a good
cunning ways of winning battles, forging alliances, holding old counselor’s ideals will never be realized.
territory, and gaining new territory. And if he, Hythloday, were
to suggest that the king cease his wars of conquest and focus
on domestic matters, what would happen?

Hythloday even has an example in mind for his hypothetical The story about the Achorians is like Utopia in miniature: both are
French king to follow, which he learned from a (fictional) people cautionary models for good governance. However, Hythloday is
called the Achorians (Greek for “those who live in a place that confident, as is More, that the hypothetical French king would
does not exist”), neighbors of the Utopians. The Achorian king dismiss the story and continue to pursue his warlike ways. This
conquered a new kingdom, but had a harder time keeping it invites the following question: If kings won’t listen to reason and
than he did in getting it because of rebellion. The Achorians lost follow good models anyway, why compose a book like Utopia in the
money and blood in battle, and in peace many were so first place? Won’t it just fall on deaf ears? Hythloday and More the
corrupted by their warlike ways that they had developed character might think that it will, but More the author perhaps
“wicked manners” and criminal tendencies. The Achorians thinks otherwise.
forced their king to choose one kingdom to govern, because in
governing both he was merely half a king. So it was that he
contented himself with his old kingdom.

Hythloday returns to his earlier question: how would the Hythloday suggests that bad leaders only want to be told what
hypothetical French king receive his counsel, that he should affirms their beliefs and prejudices. This is consistent with his fear
cease his wars of conquest and not meddle with other that people heed only their own thoughts.
kingdoms? More concedes the king would not be grateful for
such advice.

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Hythloday then imagines what cunning, vicious things his The counselors Hythloday imagines are all intelligent, shrewd
fellow counselors might advise the king to do: inflate the people, but when they aren’t guided by reason and virtue their
currency; pretend to go to war to raise money; renew old, intelligence only leads to exploitation and evil. Against the teachings
outdated laws to collect fines; impose fines for certain practices of Christ, who holds that all people are equal as God’s children, the
and sell licenses to exempt people from the fines; etc. All the counselors affirm that “might makes right.” Hythloday, by contrast,
counselors agree on one thing: as the rich Roman Crassus says, thinks of a leader not as the owner of, but as the nurturer of, his or
a prince who must maintain an army can never have enough her people. Christ, it should be added, is often imagined as the “good
gold, and a prince can never do an injustice, because all men are shepherd.”
his already. Poverty, such counselors say, makes people too
poor to behave badly or rebel. And how would the king receive
Hythloday’s counsel then, if Hythloday advised that he should
care more about the wealth of his people than about his own
wealth? A shepherd’s duty, Hythloday says, is to feed his sheep
rather than himself.

Hythloday goes on to say that poverty is not the mother of The counselors Hythloday imagines think that poor people will be
peace so much as it is of conflict, arguing, and fighting, as the too weak to cause trouble in society. Hythloday gives
behavior of beggars would suggest. After all, people who are counterexamples here to suggest otherwise: all revolutions begin in
not content are also those most desirous for change, and dissatisfaction, he says. Irrational princes who do everything they
people who have nothing to lose are likelier to resort to can to control their people will ironically bring about revolutions in
violence. Besides, it is beneath the dignity of a king to rule over their realm.
beggars—this would be fitter work for a mere jailer. A king who
cannot rule except by harming his subjects is not fit to rule at
all; he would do better to renounce bad pleasures and pride.

Hythloday introduces a law of the (fictional) people called the Hythloday’s critique of private property as a motivator of
Macarians (from the Greek meaning “happy people”). The wrongdoing foreshadows the fact that Utopian society has
Macarians do not permit their king to have more than a abolished private property altogether. When people have no outlet
thousand pounds of gold or silver in his treasury, and by this for selfishness, they serve the public good as a matter of course, to
measure they make sure that he enriches his country and not Hythloday’s mind. More’s jokes also continue here, as he further
himself. A thousand pound of gold or silver is enough to satirizes the “travel narrative” with more invented peoples whose
support the king in putting down a rebellion, but not enough to very names give away their non-existence—and undercut the way
encourage him to steal from his subjects. Hythloday idealizes them.

Hythloday concludes, at last, that his counsel could only fall on The ideals generated by “school philosophy” (as More defines
deaf ears in a king’s court, and Thomas More now agrees with academic philosophy divorced from the context of real life) are not
him. More says that “school philosophy” is not profitable or practical in Europe as it is, Hythloday and More agree. However, the
palatable to people who have already made up their minds, two men leave open the possibility that in a better world, where
even if it’s “not unpleasant” among friends. Hythloday agrees people are open-minded and interested in the public good, school
that school philosophy has no place in the consultations of philosophy does have a place in governance.
princes.

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More does say, however, that philosophy does have a part to More points out that school philosophy need not be presented in an
play in governance, although it must know its place and cannot overly systematic way. It can be made entertaining—just as Utopia
digress. He means that philosophy which is craftily and wittily presents philosophical ideas in the entertaining form of the travel
poured into the unreceptive ears of its audience to turn the narrative. If the world can’t be perfect, at least it can be better than
“very bad” into the “merely bad”—if not the good. Not until all it is.
men are good, More says, can all be well—and some men will be
bad a while yet.

Hythloday responds that playing such a crafty counselor would In some ways, Utopia is a way of presenting philosophical ideals in
just make him as bad as everyone else. If he wants to speak such a way as to avoid the pitfalls Hythloday points out here. The
truly, he must resort to “school philosophy,” and he does not book, unlike a human counselor, cannot be corrupted, nor can it be
know whether the philosopher can speak a falsehood and still punished for what it does or does not counsel. The idea that a good
be a philosopher. Hythloday does not want to play along with book should have as its ideal audience the receptive prince is
evil and wink at that which Christ forbids; he does not want common in Renaissance writings.
ethics to be bent to accommodate vice. If he disagrees with a
king’s counselors, no one will listen to him; and if he agrees with
them, he will only help to further their madness and allow bad
counsels and decrees to pass as good. He will either be
denounced as a traitor, be corrupted himself, or be held
accountable for the evils of others.

Hythloday speculates that no nation with private property or As More the character suggests later, Hythloday never gives an
money can ever be justly governed. This reminds him of the argument for his claim that private property necessarily corrupts
Utopians, who have very few laws and share all resources society—he only demonstrates that it can do so. Can’t people own
collectively, but whose society is so well organized that property in private and yet also be dedicated to the public good?
everyone thrives. Just as Plato foresees in his Republic, because Hythloday’s call for the abolition of private property ironically
the Utopians have abolished private property, everyone is makes the realization of a utopia on earth even more distant,
equal. No wicked, ravenous rich people prey on the poor, and because it entails so radical and impractical a change.
no magistrates can be bought with bribes or gifts. Until private
property is abolished in a society, Hythloday says, any kind of
“cure” will just cause sickness somewhere else in a nation’s
political body.

More questions Hythloday as to whether or not people will Characteristically, Hythloday does not directly answer More’s
really work at all without the incentive of personal gain—won’t question: you have to see Utopia to believe it, he essentially says. In
they be too confident in other people’s industry and so lazily what is a challenging paradox, however, we have to suspend our
excuse themselves from labor? Hythloday is not surprised by disbelief in Utopia before we can see it at all—and even then, as its
this question, but says that, had More lived in Utopia as he had name suggests, it is still “nowhere.”
for more than five years, More would grant that no people are
as well-ordered as the Utopians themselves.

Peter Giles says it’s hard for him to believe that this is so, given To help us suspend our disbelief in a perfect commonwealth, More
that the people in Europe are just as witty as others and that the author invents an elaborate historical backstory for his island.
their nations are even more ancient and experienced in Hythloday believes that wit can be used for good and evil, and that
governance than the Utopians’. Hythloday responds that there more often than not it is used for evil. Learning and hard work, in
were cities in Utopia before there were people in the contrast, he associates with the good.
Netherlands. He also says that, while Europeans may surpass
the Utopians in wit, the Utopians are superior in study and
work ethic.

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To demonstrate the Utopians’ excellence, Hythloday tells a As useful as they are, the crafts and sciences of the Greeks and
story. According to the Utopian chronicles, some 1,200 years Romans certainly didn’t enable those peoples to perfect the
ago certain Romans and Egyptians washed up on Utopian organization of their societies. Indeed, Hythloday’s story suggests
shores after their ship was destroyed in a storm. The Utopians that we have not yet perfected the only science that really matters:
then studiously and profitably mastered all the crafts and the science of governing well and enabling as many people to thrive
sciences these people could transmit. Hythloday doubts that in happiness as possible. This science, however, is also the hardest to
Europeans could adopt Utopian know-how as readily. This is adopt.
why, he says, Utopia is governed so much more wisely than
Europe, though the Europeans are not inferior in intelligence
or resources to the Utopians.

Thomas More asks Hythloday to describe the island of Utopia More’s household is a microcosm of the good community: it is a
in great detail, from its geography to its cities to its people to its place of friendship, plentiful food, harmonious cohabitation with
customs to its laws. Hythloday gladly agrees, but says that the nature (as symbolized by the garden), and serious but friendly
telling will require leisure. The men consequently agree to go philosophical discussion. In no other environment are the conditions
into More’s house for dinner, after which they return to the of Utopia so present—or so far from the ears of kings and
garden and sit. Hythloday thinks in silence for a while, then counselors.
proceeds to tell More and Peter Giles all about Utopia.

BOOK 2: DISCOURSE ON UTOPIA

Hythloday begins his discourse on the island of Utopia by Utopia’s geography is, from one perspective, a metaphor for
describing its geography. The island itself is about 200 miles Utopian society itself. It is difficult to access unless you already
broad and 500 miles long, in roughly the shape of a crescent. know the way, but once you’re there, it is easy to defend. In other
Between its corners the sea calmly runs in, which profitably words, it is difficult to establish a utopia, but once a utopia has been
provides ships with access to every part of the land. However, established, it won’t be readily lost or corrupted. But if you need to
the corners of the island are rocky and dangerous for ships to know the way to Utopia before you can arrive there, is it even really
access. This means the Utopians need only one military post for possible to arrive at all?
defense, strategically located upon a great rock in the sea. The
Utopians themselves would struggle to sail to their island were
it not for certain landmarks on the shore. The coasts of Utopia
are so naturally protected that a few defenders can drive back
armies.

Utopia was not always an island, Hythloday says, nor was it It is perhaps surprising to learn that Utopus formed his ideal society
always called Utopia. Its first name was Abraxa, perhaps only after conquering another people—although this may be
meaning “Holy Name,” “without breeches,” or “waterless.” metaphorical, meaning that our hearts must submit to the utopian
Utopus, the conqueror of the place and the founder of Utopia spirit before we can build a utopia. Utopus presumably formed the
itself, civilized the natives of Abraxa and had them, along with island of Utopia to protect his ideal society from external
his own soldiers, cut up and dig away the fifteen miles of corruptions. This purposeful disconnection makes it easier for a
ground that connected Utopia to the mainland. Many hands on utopia to develop, but it also renders it unrelatable to the outside
the project made light work, and so Utopia was born as an world, and divorced from many of the historical troubles that real
island. societies must deal with.

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There are fifty-four large and fair cities in Utopia, each with a The fact that all cities in Utopia are virtually identical suggests that
jurisdiction of at least twenty miles, all alike in language, uniformity is required in a commonwealth for the public good to be
customs, institutions, and laws. They are all built to be as served. Amaurote is also a shadowy copy of More’s London. Far
identical as possible. The closest cities are miles away from one from being “nowhere” for More’s contemporary readers, Utopia
another, but each is within a day’s walk from the next. The would have seemed strangely familiar. Unlike the Europeans who
centermost city, Amaurote (“dim city”), is on account of its turn farmable land to pasture, the Utopians don’t exploit but
position taken for the capital. Every year, three old, wise, and cultivate their land. This idea is central to many of Hythloday’s
experienced men come from every city to Amaurote to debate arguments, despite More’s connection to the wool trade.
“the common matters of the land.” No city desires to expand,
because the Utopians consider themselves not so much
owners as the good husbands of their land.

In the countryside are houses, farms, and farm implements. Farm labor is the cornerstone of Utopian society. It reflects the
Here the Utopians live together in families of at least forty people’s rigorous work ethic, their down-to-earth practicality, and
people, along with two bondmen, or slaves. A wise man and their harmonious relationship with the natural world. As the family
woman govern over each household, and every group of thirty is the nucleus of Utopian society, so too does Utopia resemble one
families is governed by a magistrate called a Philarch (from the big family.
Greek meaning “head of the group” or “loving ruler”).

Every year, each family sends twenty Utopians who have been The Utopians highly value equality: there are no idle landlords here
working the farms for the past two years to the cities, and as in Europe, for here everyone farms. Notice that the island of
twenty fresh workers are sent from the cities to take their Utopia is not imagined to be some perfect pastoral world devoid of
place, to be taught country work by people who have already natural disasters; the Utopians just prepare for natural disasters,
been there for a year. This system ensures that the Utopians like food shortages, more rigorously and thoroughly than their
always have expertise in farming, which protects against food European counterparts do.
shortages caused by ignorance. This system also prevents
people from becoming overworked, although many Utopians
enjoy farming so much that they choose to stay beyond their
required two years.

The duties of people in the countryside include plowing and Unlike later utopias, More’s does not rely on fantastic technological
tilling the ground, breeding cattle, and chopping wood, which progress. The people in Utopia do all the work an English peasant
they carry to the city both by land or water, whatever is most would be expected to do, only in healthier, more communal
convenient. The Utopians also breed many, many chickens, and conditions. The Utopians, who value compassion, do not raise their
in a strange way: instead of letting the hens sit on and incubate farm animals in grisly, miserable captivity, but rather treat them
their eggs, the Utopians keep the eggs in “a certain equal heat.” with respect, even as a mother would treat her child. The horse is
This makes it so that, when the chicks hatch, they consider the historically an animal of the aristocracy and of warfare; this perhaps
people who feed them to be their mothers, and even follow explains the Utopians’ preference for the more practical, useful ox.
them around. The Utopians raise horses only to train their
youths in riding and combat. Oxen, in contrast, do all of the
plowing and drawing, because they can endure more labor and
pain than horses, and because they are healthier, cheaper, and
good to eat.

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The Utopians sow corn only for bread, and they drink either The Utopians are a people of good, honest, pleasure, and so they
wine, cider, or water. They know exactly how much food each don’t abstain altogether from alcoholic beverages like wine.
city needs, yet they cultivate a surplus of corn and cattle to give Although physically isolated from the outside world, they are
to their neighbors. When the people in the country need connected to it in the form of generosity. They are constitutionally
something not found among them, they fetch it from town for incapable of waste, and so any surplus is always put to good use. An
free. The Utopians all gather in town once a month on the holy important principle in Utopia is that, when everyone works, the
day. During the harvest, the Philarchs tell the city magistrates work goes quickly.
how many laborers need to be sent to them out of the city, and
these are readily dispatched so that the harvest work takes
little more than one good day.

BOOK 2: OF THEIR TOWNS, PARTICULARLY OF AMAUROTE

The cities of Utopia are almost identical, Hythloday says: if you The uniformity of cities in Utopia reflects the civic virtue cultivated
know one, you know them all. Amaurote seems to be the among the people. As their cities are the same, so are their values
worthiest of them, however, because the council house, a and beliefs (and Hythloday seems to make no room for the idea that
capitol of sorts, is located there. Arranged almost in a square, variety and diversity could be good things in themselves). That the
this city stands on a hill that runs for two miles down to the capital of Utopia is centrally located further reflects the Utopian
river of Anyder (from the Greek meaning “without water”); the commitment to equality and efficiency. Similar to Amaurote,
city has a length a little greater than two miles. The Anyder has London is situated on a hill and runs down to a river, the Thames.
for its source a little spring eighty miles above Amaurote, and More the author is suggesting that Utopia is, in a spiritual sense,
sixty miles beyond the city the river drains into the ocean. The right under our feet—Amaurote is a “shadowy” potential version of
water of the Anyder ebbs and flows every six hours, so that it is London itself.
fresh and mostly salty in turns.

Another, smaller river, fenced in by the Utopians at its source to The Utopians wisely derive as much usefulness as they can out of
protect it from invaders, also runs through Amaurote, their natural environment, but they never shy away from doing hard
conveyed by brick channels. Where that water cannot reach, work. Given that Utopia is so hard to reach, and that it is so
the Utopians use cisterns to gather rainwater. High, thick stone generous with its neighbors, we might wonder why its cities are so
walls, loaded with defensive turrets and bulwarks, surround strongly fortified. Better safe than sorry, perhaps.
the city. Around three sides of Amaurote, furthermore, is a
deep, broad, dry ditch full of bushes and thorns. On the fourth
side the river itself acts like a ditch.

The streets of Amaurote are conveniently wide—some twenty As we would expect, Utopia’s cities are rationally and practically
feet wide—and well sheltered from wind. Gorgeous houses line designed, not built helter-skelter like many European cities. More
them in gapless rows. In the back of every house is a garden. the author borrows the detail of the unlocked doors from Plato’s
Each house has a front door to the street and a back door to Republic. This idea reflects the Utopians’ absolute commitment to
the garden. These doors are never locked or bolted, so that any collective ownership of all resources.
citizen can, when they please, freely enter any other citizen’s
house. Every ten years the Utopians randomly change houses.

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The Utopians care for their gardens meticulously, and they In Utopia, the garden is a symbol for human work and desire
grow vineyards, various fruits, herbs, and flowers. They do so imposed onto, and in harmony with, the natural world. The
out of pleasure and also in friendly competition with their Utopians live in a world much more similar to the Biblical Paradise,
neighbors. There is nothing so useful and pleasant as these the Garden of Eden, than do their European counterparts. Note
gardens in Utopia, which is perhaps why Utopus dedicated Utopus’s focus on practical matters like city layout over
himself to taking care of them when he founded the nation. beautification—there seems to be no room for art for art’s sake in
This great founder laid out the city in its current configuration, Utopia.
but he left its beautification to future generations.

Indeed, chronicles have been written since the island’s Utopia was not always ideal in its form. Rome was not built in a day,
founding 1,760 years ago, and these show that the houses in as the saying goes, and neither was Utopia. Realizing the ideal takes
Utopia were at first low and homely like poor shepherds’ time, but before the ideal can be realized it must be shared. The
houses, made of mud and straw. But now the houses are Utopians are a people of pleasure, and part of that means creating
gorgeous, with three stories, built of stone, plastering, or brick. not only a functional but also a beautiful environment (so long as
The roofs are made of cheap, fireproof plaster that also resists that beauty is also functional, and doesn’t cause any inequality in
violent weather well. Glass and linen cloth dipped in oil or the society).
amber keep the wind out of the windows.

BOOK 2: OF THEIR MAGISTRATES

As has been said, Hythloday continues, every group of thirty Unlike monarchs and magistrates in More’s Europe, the magistrates
families or farms in Utopia annually elects an officer to in Utopia are elected by the people, for the people. This is a
represent them; this officer or magistrate is called a Philarch democratic institutionalization of the Utopian ideals of equality and
(formerly known as a Syphogrant, perhaps from the Greek civic virtue. In a notable contrast, leaders in Plato’s Republic are
meaning “wise old ruler of the pigsty”). In turn, every ten not elected by the people.
Philarchs is under a magistrate called the Archphilarch
(formerly known as the Tranibore).

Concerning the election of the chief magistrate of the city Although swearing to choose the best candidate may seem like a
(whom we’ll call the Prince, even though he is not a monarch), mere formality, it is part of the Utopians’ commitment to advancing
all the Philarchs, who number 200, first swear to choose the the commonwealth’s interests over their own individual interests.
best candidate; then they secretly vote for one of the four No prejudice or nepotism or personal enmity should have a place in
candidates whose names are put forward by the people in each electing government officials. That the Archphilarchs are rarely
quarter of the city, one name per quarter. The Prince governs changed out suggests how consistently Utopia produces learned
for a lifetime unless he is deposed on suspicion of tyranny. (We people of excellence, and how happy the people are with their
later learn that the Utopians also call the Prince “Barzanes,” of representatives.
unknown derivation, and “Ademus,” from the Greek meaning
“without people”). The Archphilarchs are chosen annually, but
are rarely changed out. All other magistrates serve terms of
one year.

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Every three days the Archphilarchs meet with the Prince to The Utopians’ policies concerning their magistrates are designed to
discuss the state of the commonwealth, including any problems distribute information, influence, and experience equally among the
among the people, though these seldom arise. The Philarchs, as well as to ensure that the people’s voice is heard
Archphilarchs bring with them two Philarchs, a new couple throughout the decision-making process. We might think that the
every day. Nothing can be confirmed and ratified in the death penalty is disproportionate to the crime of merely consulting
commonwealth unless it has been debated for three days in the about the commonwealth privately, but this also shows just how
council. Magistrates who hold consultations about the vital transparency and equality are to the Utopians.
commonwealth outside of the council or the place of the
common election are sentenced to death. This prevents
magistrates from conspiring together to bring about tyranny.

Matters of great importance must be disclosed to the The Utopians are supremely democratic: decision-makers must
Philarchs, who then consult with their families. Sometimes such meet with the public concerning important matters (this is not even
matters are brought before the council of the whole island. the case in a democracy like the United States). However, we might
Another custom of the council is to not debate a matter on the wonder if decisions can be made in a timely fashion within such a
day it is proposed, but to wait till the next meeting. This system, and it’s hard to imagine it working in a nation of any great
prevents magistrates from developing rash prejudices, and size.
gives them time to think before speaking.

BOOK 2: OF THEIR TRADES, AND MANNER OF LIFE

Hythloday now discusses the work done in Utopia. As has been Equality in labor creates plenty, and so all Utopians are trained to
said, everyone develops expertise, both theoretical and labor. Moreover, because the Utopians have abolished private
practical, in farming. In addition, every Utopian learns his or her property, they (supposedly) have no interest in luxury goods, and
own proper craft, be it clothworking, masonry, metalworking, therefore they have no need for occupations other than those that
or carpentry. (The Utopians have no need for any other serve essential functions. Note that this does not imply the absence
occupations.) Hythloday includes a brief digression here about of beauty or art in Utopia—their houses and churches are gorgeous,
apparel: the Utopians all wear attractive, comfortable, flexible and they love music—but there seems to be no “art for art’s sake,”
garments of the same fashion, distinguished only by gender and and such things are meant primarily as a distracting pleasure, not a
marital status, to minimize the number of workmen they need. way of life valuable in itself.

All citizens, men and women, must learn a craft. The women, Although the Utopians value uniformity, they are also
being less physically strong, tend to work with cloth. The men accommodating of individual aptitude and preference. People are
take up “the more laboursome” crafts, and each is usually not treated like ants in Utopia, but are free to work at the craft they
brought up in his father’s craft. But people are free to learn the prefer. That being said, they must work, and the needs of the
craft they find most appealing, and they can even to learn a community always override individual preference.
second craft after the first if they so desire. When someone has
learned two crafts, they can do whichever they please unless
the city has more need of one than the other.

Keeping people diligently at their tasks is almost the only office The Philarchs are like the parents of the families they govern over.
of the Philarchs. So that people do not exhaust themselves Although Hythloday claims the Utopians only work six hours a day,
working like beasts, they are only required to work six hours the critic Stephen Greenblatt argues that this figure is a gross
every twenty-four-hour day, three before lunch and three after, underestimation given all the work Utopians must do.
until dinner. Utopians go to bed around eight o’ clock in the
evening and sleep for eight hours.

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All the time that is not spent at work, sleep, or eating the The Utopians work only as much as is necessary, and this gives
Utopians may spend as they please. They can attend the daily them time to rest and savor life. However, their leisure activities are
lectures open to the educated and general public alike, listen to no more idle than their daily labor. The Utopians give their free time
music and dance, or play virtuous games (no gambling, to pleasurably bettering their minds and character.
naturally, in Utopia), including a chess-like game and a didactic
game (of More’s invention) where vices fight with virtues.

Even though the Utopians work only six hours a day, they Hythloday contrasts the ideal, yet also strictly down-to-earth work
complete all the work necessary for a healthy, happy life. This is ethic of the Utopians with European idleness and
because there are no idle serving men here, no idle women, no wastefulness—things made possible by money and private property.
idle priests, no idle landowners, and no idle able-bodied The Utopians work less, as a whole, because all of them work.
beggars. Also, because there is no money in Utopia, people
don’t work at vain and superfluous occupations, and they don’t
waste their money on bad, dishonest pleasures. If everyone in
society worked hard and productively, Hythloday says, no one
would be overworked.

In Utopia, only 500 people are exempt from labor, including the A running motif in Utopia is the idea that Utopians not only have to
Philarchs. But not even these magistrates live idly: they labor work but also want to work, as the Philarchs do, because they enjoy
anyway so that “their example [may] provoke others to work.” exercising virtue by serving the public good. Contrast this with
Furthermore, those whom the people have excused from labor Hythloday’s Europeans, who work only for selfish reasons. Although
to learn can be plucked back to the company of the workers if Utopia is a pleasure-driven society, the people especially embrace
they prove unsatisfactory. Many craftsmen, for their part, pleasures of the mind, such that even the average Utopian is
become so learned in their spare time that they are promoted learned.
to the company of the “learned” (educated). All ambassadors
and magistrates are chosen out of the learned class.

The Utopians avoid excessive building costs by continually The Utopians work hard and smart, doing a little inexpensive work
repairing their buildings instead of letting them fall into decay periodically rather than living in idleness till their infrastructure
and replacing them. They also lessen the charge of clothing by requires major, expensive repair or even replacement. They always
wearing durable leather while they work and wool cloaks while value things in proportion to their usefulness and practicality.
they travel, all of one color. They use coarse linen because it is
less expensive such linen also lasts longer than, say, fine and
dainty silk.

Because the Utopians don’t need to work as much as people The Utopians do not do work for the sake of doing work—they do
elsewhere, many can come together to repair broken highways only what is necessary, because this ultimately promotes happiness.
as needed. Also, the magistrates do not make the people work
when it’s unnecessary; as such, they will, whenever
appropriate, announce fewer hours in work. This makes it
possible for the Utopians to improve their minds freely, and this
is their principle happiness.

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BOOK 2: OF THEIR TRAFFIC

Hythloday now turns to how Utopians interact with one Families in Utopia are patriarchal, that is, ruled by men. Hythloday
another. Cities consist of families, mostly made up of blood gives no reason as to why this might be so (he later suggests that
relatives. Wives leave their own families to live with their women have more rights and privileges in Utopia, at least, than they
husbands, but men stay in the families they’re born into, did in Renaissance Europe.) It seems almost totalitarian that the
governed by the oldest capable man. No family may have fewer Utopian state can for all intents and purposes regulate people’s
than ten members or more than sixteen (not counting their procreation so as to satisfy quotas for family size—and yet this is
children), and no city may have more than 6,000 families in it. probably necessary to maintain the island’s society.

If a family becomes too large, its excess members are moved For the sake of uniform family size, the Utopian state is willing to
into smaller families, and if a city becomes too large, its excess separate beloved relatives from one another, which might strike us
members are moved into smaller cities. If the population of the as both inhumane and bad for morale in the commonwealth. And if
island itself becomes too large, the excess members relocate to the Utopians don’t care that they’re ripped from their loved ones,
a nearby land where there is much waste and they found a this might reflect just as badly on the commonwealth. Also
town, assimilating the natives there if possible, but driving disturbing is the fact that the Utopians can justify warfare on the
them out and warring with them if not. The Utopians maintain grounds of whether or not they think other people are wasting land.
that the most just cause of war is to liberate ground that people Even practicality and efficiency can become tyrannical when
would otherwise idly occupy. If a city in Utopia proper becomes enforced upon others.
too small, members of these Utopian towns abroad are moved
into it.

Now for the interactions of the Utopians. The oldest capable The patriarchal structure of the Utopian family might trouble us,
man rules the family. Wives care for their husbands, and but in More’s Europe it would be par for the course. The centrality of
children for their parents. Each city is divided into equal the markets reflects the Utopian commitment to equality. Again
quarters, and at the center of each is a marketplace. From here Hythloday suggests that the conditions of Utopian society itself, and
the fathers of the families fetch what their households require not any laws, promote the communal spirit.
for free. No one in Utopia asks for more than they need; fear of
lack and pride are the causes of greed, but neither exists in
Utopia.

Around the markets are places to get food: herbs, fruit, bread, As admirable as the Utopians’ sense of mercy and compassion is, it
fish, the meat of four-legged animals, and fowl. Animals are seems inconsistent with the fact that they should kill animals at all.
killed, cleaned, and butchered outside of town by bondmen Why not vegetarianism? Troubling also is the fact that they force
(slaves), because free citizens are not allowed to do so. The bondmen to kill animals, even though bondmen are those in society
Utopians believe that mercy decays in people who regularly kill. whose sense of mercy is presumably most deficient—how can these
Also, nothing filthy or unclean is brought into the city, and this offenders be rehabilitated if they’re forced to do gruesome,
prevents pestilence and disease. Along every street are great desensitizing work?
halls for meeting and eating. The Philarchs live in these, along
with the thirty families appointed to them. The stewards of
every hall come into the food markets to fetch however much
meat is necessary.

Around each city there are four big, well-supplied, diligently Like the cities themselves, Utopian hospitals are rationally and
attended hospitals, so big they can comfortably accommodate practically designed. The Utopians especially value health because,
any number of patients without the risk of spreading disease. without it, one cannot serve the public good.
The physicians are intelligent and skilled. No person is forced
to go to the hospital, but in the case of illness most people
prefer the hospital to their own beds.

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After the sick receive the food their physicians have prescribed, It is a sign of the Utopians’ (enforced) compassion that they give the
the best food in the city is divided up, first among the best of their food to the sick, and it is a sign of individual liberty that
magistrates, priests, ambassadors, and (the very rare) Utopians can fetch from the markets as much food as they need.
strangers, then among the rest of the citizens. No one is Utopia trusts its citizens to consume goods ethically. The fact that
prohibited from fetching more food out of the market and the food in the public dining halls is better than what can be
bringing it to his own house. People can dine at home instead of prepared in private homes further speaks to the power of the
in the halls, but no one willingly does, because it is a point of communal spirit in Utopia.
small honesty to dine among one’s fellow citizens, and also
because the food in the halls is better than what one could
prepare at home.

In the halls, the hardest, most drudging labor is done by In general, the Utopians spare their citizens the worst work,
bondmen. Women from every family prepare and serve the assigning it instead to slaves, mercenaries, and the like. The
meals. Men sit against the wall opposite women at the table Utopians are so practical that even their seating arrangements
(four people to a table), which makes it easy for women to rise, serve a practical purpose (though we might think women are so
as often happens when they’re pregnant, and go to the nursery. often pregnant because of the quota on family size).

The nurses sit in a parlor with the babies they’re nursing, and There are holes and gaps in Hythloday’s account of Utopia. How are
they’re provided with fire, clean water, and cradles. Every the nurses, for example, chosen and trained? Hythloday doesn’t tell
mother nurses her own child unless she is prevented by us. It is, moreover, one of his characteristic gestures to downplay
sickness. In such a case, the wives of the Philarchs quickly how strict Utopian society is, as when he says there are no other
provide a nurse. Children under the age of five also sit with the formalities at mealtime—as if he hasn’t already enumerated a great
nurses at meals. All the other children under the age of number of strict formalities and rules.
marriage, boys and girls, serve at the tables or, if they’re not
strong enough to serve, stand silently by. These children eat
what’s given to them. There are no other formalities at
mealtime among the Utopians.

The Philarch and his wife sit—with two of the eldest next to The Utopians value education in civic virtue so highly as to make it a
them, or the priest and his wife—at the center of the high table part of daily routine. But is it possible for young people to be
so that everyone in the hall can see them. The young sit subjected to such intense scrutiny without feeling resentment or
interspersed among their elders at meals rather than off by even paranoia? Don’t even children need privacy to socialize among
themselves so that they cannot behave and speak viciously, and themselves? Apparently not, at least in the world of Utopia.
elders do not talk tediously but encourage young people to
prove their wit and virtuous disposition in conversation.

The Utopians begin every meal with a reading of something It is a sign of the Utopians’ practicality that they only read short
good, virtuous, and short. Lunch is short, but dinner is long, and texts before meals—they understand that it’s hard to focus when
no dinner passes without music being played. Incense, spices, one is hungry. They also enrich the necessity of eating with
and perfumes are burned during meals, and sweet ointments unnecessary, harmless pleasures, squeezing as much enjoyment as
and waters are sprinkled about. The Utopians believe that no they can out of their free time.
pleasure should be forbidden if no harm comes of it. In the
country, in contrast, people who dwell far from their neighbors
do eat in their own houses.

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BOOK 2: OF THE TRAVELLING OF THE UTOPIANS

If Utopians desire to travel to other cities, the Philarchs or The Utopians have so many regulations in place concerning travel,
Archphilarchs grant them license. People don’t travel alone, but presumably, so that people will not be able to shirk their labor by
rather in companies, and they must carry a letter testifying that drifting from place to place. But if the Utopians value the public
they have permission to be abroad and that also prescribes the good as highly as we’ve been led to believe, and deeply enjoy their
date of their return. Travelers are provided with a wagon lives, why would any be tempted to shirk their labor in the first
driven by a bondman, but, unless they have women in their place? We might also think that people should have the freedom to
company, they usually do without it. Travelers are taken care of travel alone.
by their fellow Utopians wherever they go, though if they stay
in a place for more than a day they are expected to work.

People who travel without permission are taken for runaways In his discussion of marriage in Utopia, Hythloday says the only
and returned home with a stern warning and sharp crime for which there is a fixed punishment is adultery—yet there is
punishment. Those who commit such an offense again are an inconsistency in his story, for here he says that there’s also a fixed
punished with bondage. A man can walk about in the country if punishment for running away, namely, bondage. If Utopians are
given permission by the head of his family and his wife. constantly keeping an eye on each other, we might wonder if theirs
However, the man will not be fed until he does his work. Under is a culture of suspicion and paranoia—both feelings that would
this condition, a man can also go wherever he wishes in his own threaten social unity and general morale.
city. After all, there are no wicked taverns or alehouses or
brothels for him to go to, and every Utopian keeps an eye on
every other.

Everyone in Utopia has what he or she needs because all More’s Utopia is subject to natural laws (as suggested by the island’s
people there are equal partners. When the three old, wise, and lack of iron) and disaster. But, while we always hear about what
experienced men come from every city to Amaurote each year, Utopia does with its surplus, we never learn what happens to the
they report the quantity of resources their cities have, and ideal of equality in emergency situations, that is, when there are not
cities with an abundance of goods give freely to those with a enough resources to go around. How can everyone be equal then? In
lack. The whole island is like a family or household in this way. any case, the Utopians never waste, but would rather give surplus to
When every city in Utopia is well supplied, the Utopians take those who need it most, even non-Utopians. We later learn that
their surplus into foreign countries. One seventh of the surplus Utopia uses its gold and silver mostly to finance warfare—taking
is given freely to the poor abroad, and the rest is sold at a advantage of how other nations value these “useless” metals.
reasonable, low price. By this means, the Utopians bring back
both gold and silver as well as those resources they lack, which
is virtually only iron.

When selling goods, the Utopians accept both ready money Although the Utopians don’t use money domestically, they are
and credit. They do not accept promises of payment from practical enough to acquire money for their dealings with
private individuals, but require the promises of whole cities. commonwealths abroad. However, because they spend money
When the day of repayment arrives, a given city will collect all almost only in times of war, and because they avoid war at all costs,
the debt privately owed to the Utopians and put it into the it would be a waste for them to collect all of the money owed to
city’s commons until their Utopian creditors demand it. But them, hence their generosity (which has the added bonus of creating
most of what is owed to them the Utopians never ask for, goodwill between Utopia and its neighbors).
preferring not to take it from those whom it profits. They
require their debt only when lending to another people or in
times of war, for the hiring of mercenaries.

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The Utopians value gold and silver far less than iron, because The Utopians love the useful and scorn the useless, hence their
iron is useful and essential for life. People only value gold and opposed attitudes to iron and gold. However, it would seem that
silver out of folly, Hythloday says, because it is rare. To prevent even the Utopians find gold inherently attractive—otherwise, they
people from hoarding gold or becoming attached to it, the wouldn’t need to associate the metal with dirtiness, slavery, and
Utopians use the stuff to build chamber pots (receptacles for immaturity in order to scorn it. This is all to say that the Utopians
human waste) and other things that serve low purposes, like are not born with wiser attitudes about gold, say, than their
fetters for their bondmen and jewelry which offenders are European counterparts; they just develop wiser attitudes through
forced to wear for shame. Moreover, the Utopians give their the rules of their society.
children pearls and precious stones, but only so that they
outgrow them as our children outgrow and become
embarrassed of their toys.

Hythloday proceeds to tell a funny story about three This story demonstrates how effective practicality and humility are
ambassadors of the Anemolians (from the Greek meaning in putting pride to shame. Wealth only holds power over us when we
“windy people”) who came to Amaurote on a mission. They ourselves empower it to do so—but the Utopians see power only in
noticed the Utopians wore no fine clothes or jewelry and study and labor. Hythloday’s deeper suggestion here is that the
assumed that they must lack those things. In order to impress ambassadors really are slaves—and pride and greed are their
the Utopians, then, the three ambassadors, accompanied by a masters.
hundred servants, dressed in gorgeous silks and dazzling gold
jewelry and precious stones—only for the Utopians to mistake
the ambassadors’ servants for lords and the gaudily dressed
ambassadors for slaves! After a day or two, the ambassadors
hid away their gold and finery in shame.

The Utopians wonder why anyone would be enamored of gold If Utopians think gold is inherently unimpressive compared to the
when they have the stars to gaze upon. They think it absurd stars, say, why do they have to teach their children to scorn such a
that in many parts of the world gold is valued more highly than treasure? There seems to be an inconsistency here. It is
people, and that an idiot can command respect by virtue of characteristically Utopian, however, to pragmatically value people
mere wealth. The Utopians especially detest that people over gold.
practically worship rich people whom they know will never give
them so much as a farthing, a single cent.

The Utopians develop their opinions through socialization and Unlike in Renaissance Europe, all children in Utopia are educated,
education. Although few citizens—only the wittiest and most which promotes both unity in the commonwealth and individual
apt—are exempt from labor so that they can dedicate happiness. Their educational system must be effective, for Utopians
themselves to learning, every Utopian child is given an would rather continue their educations than do almost anything
education in their rich, pleasant native language. Even most else. The four arts the Utopians study make up what was in
men and women bestow their spare hours on learning. The Renaissance Europe called the “quadrivium,” a program of study
Utopians were not familiar with many famous philosophers designed to prepare one for philosophy and theology. These
until Hythloday introduced them, but they already knew much subjects, in turn, make up the foundation of Utopian life.
of what the famous philosophers teach concerning music, logic,
arithmetic, and geometry. The Utopians also know much about
astronomy, but they do not use the positions of the stars and
planets to divine the future as many in Europe do.

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As for moral philosophy, the Utopians’ chief area of inquiry is Hythloday’s account of Utopian philosophy is notoriously confused.
how people can attain to happiness. They are, in broad terms, He gently disapproves of the Utopians’ love of pleasure, yet we later
hedonists: people who believe that pleasure is the most learn that their chief pleasures are of the mind—exercising virtue
important thing in life. To build their philosophy, the Utopians and good conscience. Hythloday seems too bookish and dry to truly
draw on religious ideas: they hold the soul to be immortal and relish intellectual activity as a form of pleasure.
destined by God for happiness, and they believe that good
deeds are rewarded, and bad deeds punished, in the afterlife.

If these religious principles were disproved, the Utopians The Utopians’ love of pleasure is grounded in, but independent of,
would affirm nonetheless that pleasure is to be obtained by all their religious principles. This means that the foundation of Utopian
possible means, legal or illegal, so long as lesser pleasures don’t virtue could survive any debunking of religious dogma. The Utopians
hinder us from obtaining bigger pleasures. The Utopians pragmatically avoid pain, but it’s important to remember that More
believe that people should not willfully submit themselves to the man inflicted pain on himself as a self-flagellator—whipping
pain, and that happiness only comes from good and honest himself to atone for sins.
pleasure, like virtue.

The Utopians define virtue as a life organized according to By “nature,” the Utopians seem to mean something like “human
nature, which drives us on to seek pleasure wherever we can. nature,” for reason is a distinctively human faculty (at least
We follow nature by heeding what our reason approves and according to the Platonic and Aristotelian theories More is working
disapproves of; reason also guides us in the love of the divine. with here). The Utopian theory of pleasure also precludes acting out
Finally, because every person is part of society in nature, it is of greed, because, insofar as we are social animals, our pursuit of
only natural that in his pursuit of pleasure he does not harm his pleasure should be socially conducted. This emphasis on the public
fellows. We should honor our promises and obey good laws. A good is also evident in the value the Utopians place on self-sacrifice.
life of pleasure can either be evil—in which case we should help
no one pursue it—or it can be good, in which case we should
help others and ourselves to it. Self-sacrifice is an act of
humanity and gentleness, and it always brings benefits, a good
conscience, and God’s graces.

The Utopians define pleasure as anything that naturally It is important to note that many of the things we think of as
delights either the body or mind; after all, the senses and pleasurable—like nice clothes, money, and gambling—the Utopians
reason itself desire pleasure. The Utopians avoid, however, don’t find pleasurable at all. People take pleasure in these things,
those things that other people only imagine to be pleasurable Hythloday says, only by unnaturally perverting their ideas of
despite nature, because once the mind is possessed by false pleasure. This leaves the crucial question of how our ideas of
pleasure it can no longer delight in the true. Among false pleasure can come to be “perverted” in the first place—but
pleasures the Utopians count gaudy clothes; vain and Hythloday doesn’t address this issue.
unprofitable honors like those which come with dominating
other men; riches and precious stones, which people merely
hoard; gambling; and hunting, which to the Utopians is vile
butchery.

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Among “true” pleasures, the Utopians recognize two kinds: Although the Utopians’ chief pleasure comes from exercising virtue
those of body and those of mind. There are two kinds of bodily and conscience, Hythloday gives us only a cloudy picture of what
pleasure. The first is the pleasure we feel when we satisfy our this looks like in practice. Also lacking from Hythloday’s picture of
bodies’ physical requirements, as when we eat and drink when mental pleasure is a discussion of arts other than music—it seems
we’re hungry and thirsty, relieve our bowels, or scratch an itch. that there is no room for the “artist” as an occupation, but only for
Related to this is the pleasure we feel when we listen to music, art as distracting, virtuous pleasure. Art is, in contrast, a major topic
as this affects our senses. The second kind of bodily pleasure is for Plato in his Republic—and it’s also worth noting that in Plato’s
that which comes from good health, which is the foundation ideal city, poets were banned.
and ground of all other pleasures. The Utopians “chiefest and
most principle of all” pleasures, however, are those of the mind,
especially the exercise of virtue and conscience.

Hythloday comments now that the Utopians are the most It is ironic that Hythloday begins his discussion of Utopian
excellent people in the world, and that their commonwealth is hedonism on a note of disapproval, only to conclude that the
the most flourishing. The Utopians are healthy, active, nimble, Utopians are the most excellent people in the world. We might
and strong. Though their soil and air are not of the highest appreciate the fact that, though Utopian society has labor as its
quality, the Utopians manage their resources so well that they cornerstone, the Utopians are the first to acknowledge that there’s
thrive. The people are gentle, happy, witty, delighting in so much more to life than mere work.
quietness, and able to endure great labor as required. They
aren’t especially fond of bodily labor, but they never grow tired
of studying and exercising their minds.

When Hythloday exposed the Utopians to Greek literature and Hythloday’s speculation that the Utopians originated in Greece is
philosophy (he didn’t think they would care much for Latin something of a joke on More the author’s part. After all, so much of
writings, except for historians and poets), they earnestly asked More’s creation borrows heavily from Greek culture and thought, as
him to teach them the language. The Utopians learned with in Utopia’s democratic elements and virtue ethics. We must keep in
marvelous quickness, and in three years had mastered Greek; mind, also, that humanists like More idealized the cultures of
indeed, Hythloday suspects that the Utopians must have Ancient Greece and Rome. The story about the monkey parodies
originated in Greece. In addition, Hythloday gave the Utopians the sea monsters that inevitably appear in Renaissance travel
most of Plato’s works, most of Aristotle’s, some Greek narratives—the scariest thing for Hythloday is losing pages of his
grammars and histories, the poetry of Homer and Euripides, precious books.
and more. They would also now have Theophrastus’s book
about plants in its entirety had a marmoset (a kind of monkey)
not ripped some pages out while Hythloday was sailing aboard
a ship during his fourth voyage.

The Utopians especially value the medical writings of the The Utopians use the craft of printing to make copies of their books
Greek physician Galen. Although they need less medical and democratically spread knowledge. Just as important is what
attention than any other people, the Utopians delight in they don’t use printing for. In More’s time, the printing press was
exploring the mysteries of nature. They are ingenious inventors often used to mass-produce vitriolic political and religious treatises.
of things that are to the advantage and enrichment of human Utopian unity prevents such abuses there.
life. They owe to Hythloday and his fellow travelers the crafts
of printing and of making paper, by which they’ve multiplied
their books into many thousands of copies.

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The Utopians are very welcoming of guests. They love to hear The Utopians very practically learn as much about the world abroad
about the laws, policies, and manners of other lands. That being whenever the opportunity presents itself. This gives them ideas to
said, few merchants come to Utopia because the only thing the implement at home, and it also prepares them to deal politically
Utopians buy, really, is iron. The Utopians also think it more with other commonwealths.
prudent to go into foreign lands to trade themselves, rather
than have merchants come, because this gives them better
knowledge of their surroundings and keeps them proficient and
knowledgeable in sailing.

BOOK 2: OF THEIR SLAVES, AND OF THEIR MARRIAGES

Slavery in Utopia, Hythloday explains, is a punishment for those Utopia pragmatically turns crime, death, and misery into
Utopians who have committed “heinous offenses.” Utopia also productivity—or so runs Hythloday’s account. For our part, we
pays cities in other lands for their criminals, but only those might wonder whether a society that relies on slave labor can be
already condemned to death: these prisoners are then brought anything but morally corrupt, deep down. Bondage may be more
back to Utopia to labor in bondage. Poor (free) laborers from humane than the death penalty, but that doesn’t mean that it is
other countries sometimes volunteer to become bondmen in humane, much less that it should feature in a supposedly perfect
Utopia, but these are treated “almost as gently as [Utopia’s] society.
own free citizens” and are at liberty to depart at any time,
though they seldom do. The Utopians do not make prisoners of
war into bondmen, except those captured in battle. Slaves who
are originally from Utopia are forced to work the hardest,
because they fell into crime despite being brought up in such a
virtuous and excellent commonwealth.

The Utopians care for their sick very affectionately, providing The Utopians’ conception of the public good is not one of ruthless
both the proper diet and medical attention. The people comfort productivity and efficiency—rather, it is one of general welfare and
those with incurable diseases by visiting and helping them. For happiness. Nowhere is this clearer than in the Utopians’ health care
people who have diseases that are not only incurable but also system, which is centered on availability and excellence of care as
cause continual pain, the priests and magistrates urge them to well as compassion. Note that the Catholic Church, of which the
consider euthanasia, or voluntary death (by starvation, for man Thomas More was a part, strictly prohibits euthanasia as a
example). This is because such invalids cannot do the duty of crime against God’s gift of life. Again, the question arises: to what
life and are a burden to themselves and others. However, the extent does the author of Utopia really approve of Utopian policy?
Utopians don’t force anyone to die against their will. People
who kill themselves before the priests and council have allowed
it are considered unworthy to be buried or burned; their bodies
are thrown into “some stinking marsh” or other.

A woman must be eighteen years old or older to get married in The Utopians are so severe in punishing adulterers because
Utopia; a man must be at least twenty-two. If it is proven that a ruptured marriages disrupt the peace and operations of the
man or woman has had sex before their marriage, he or she is commonwealth. That being said, Hythloday never gives a reason as
sharply punished, and both partners to the act are forbidden to why the Utopians believe that marriage is the ideal relation
from marriage unless pardoned by the Prince. The heads of the between man and woman. It might not be ideal of pleasure, but it is
family in which such offenses occur risk infamy for being at least a system that society and the government and regulate.
negligent in their duties. The Utopians punish free love so
strictly because they fear that if they don’t, few people will get
married.

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The Utopians have one custom that Hythloday finds foolish: Hythloday proves himself either more moral or more irrationally
they show prospective husbands and wives their potential prudish than the Utopians in disapproving of their pragmatic
spouses before marriage. Who would buy a horse, they argue, premarital customs. Still, the comparison of selecting a mate to
without inspecting it thoroughly? The Utopians understand buying a horse does seem inarguably dehumanizing.
that not all men and women are so enlightened as to be pleased
only by their spouse's virtue, but also by their physical
appearance. This practice prevents spouses from being
alienated from each other later if they discover a previously
hidden “deformity.”

Matrimony is never broken in Utopia except by death, adultery, Not being able to marry after committing adultery might seem like a
or intolerable behavior on the part of one of the spouses; in the punishment that is disproportionate to the crime—after all, sex is
latter case, the council may license a person to divorce their natural, promotes pleasure, and no reason is given for why having
present spouse and wed another. However, the spouse who multiple partners should be considered a punishable offense.
misbehaved lives in infamy, and is forbidden from remarrying. If Nonetheless, Utopia’s policies concerning divorce are much more
a husband and wife can’t get along, and they find others they liberal than those of More’s England. Indeed, More himself
can get along with better (and agree to do so), the council can infuriated King Henry VIII when he refused to condone the King’s
also grant them a divorce, although this is rarely done, to divorce—a moral stance that ultimately led to More being executed.
discourage people from seeking easy ways out of marriage.

People who commit adultery are punished with bondage, and if To the modern sensibility, it is perhaps shocking that adulterers are
both offenders were married, their former spouses can get sentenced to the same punishment as murderers. Softening the
married to each other (if they want), or else to whomever they blow, however, is the Prince’s mercy in granting adulterers their
desire. If a person still wishes to be married to the partner who freedom. Still, the Utopians seem skeptical that adulterers can be
cheated on them, they are allowed, but on the condition that rehabilitated. Why else would they prohibit them from remarrying,
they must follow their partner into labor and drudgery. Often or go so far as to put them to death? All this suggests a view of
the Prince is so moved by the adulterer’s repentance and their sexuality and romantic love that seems utterly foreign to modern
spouse’s fidelity that he grants the adulterer their freedom. If ideas.
someone commits adultery twice, they are sentenced to death.

For all other crimes, there is no prescribed sentence in the law. To its credit, Utopian justice treats offenders in most instances as
The council judges each offender on a case-by-case basis. individual people, not as cases to be processed by a mechanical,
Husbands chastise their wives, and parents chastise their inhumane system. Note, however, that punishment is not designed
children, unless they’ve done something so heinous that the to rehabilitate offenders or make them more virtuous, but rather to
example of public punishment would encourage better cause them grief, which is perhaps not so admirable. As in every
behavior in others. The most common punishment for heinous other feature of Utopian society, hard work guarantees society’s
crimes is slavery, which causes the offender grief while also sympathy. We might wonder how Utopians discover whether or not
profiting the commonwealth. If a bondman rebels, however, someone has had criminal thoughts—and should thinking about
they are killed like a desperate wild beast. People who are committing a crime really merit the same punishment as actually
patient in bondage and who repent of their crimes live in hope committing it? At the same time, this reflects a certain idea
of having their punishment mitigated or lifted. People who expressed by Jesus in the Bible—that lusting after a woman is the
intend to commit adultery or any other crime are subject to the same as actually committing adultery with her.
same punishments as those who actually commit them. In
Utopia, the intent is considered as evil as the act.

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The Utopians take especial pleasure in fools (by which the Utopia cares for all of its citizens, which reflects a general respect for
author means either witty and intelligent professional clowns, human life that transcends ruthless practicality (although ruthless
or, in what is the likelier case here, the mentally disabled). It is practicality certainly governs many aspects of their society). They
deeply shameful to hurt one of these fools in Utopia, but the hold people accountable only for what they can control, and they
Utopians believe that it profits the fools themselves to be don’t exploit anyone, much less those who are vulnerable.
objects of pleasure. To mock a person for a deformity or
missing limb is also a deeply shameful act, for the Utopians
think that it’s unwise to mock someone for what they cannot
change.

The Utopians think it’s good to take pleasure in natural beauty, Make-up is a sign of pride to the Utopians, and so is as useless as
but they condemn as vain and prideful those who prefer gold is to them. Husbands more practically value those qualities
women in make-up. Honesty and humility are what a good which make for a happy marriage.
Utopian husband really values in his wife.

The Utopians punish sin, as we have seen, but they also reward Utopian society does not just discourage bad behavior, for this
virtue. Sculptures of good men, especially great benefactors, would lower morale. They also incentivize good behavior by
are set up in the marketplaces to remind people of their good honoring the ideal. That being said, the Utopians know that those
acts and to encourage virtue. Those who desire honors who do good only for honor tend not to be “good” at all, but merely
inordinately, however, can be sure that they will never be vain.
honored in Utopia.

Utopians live together lovingly. Their magistrates are neither Leadership in Utopia is not a cause for pride; even the Prince is but a
proud nor severe, but are like good fathers whom the citizens humble servant of the people. Note the recurring motif of
honor willingly. The Prince is not distinguished by gaudy patriarchal rule.
clothes, but only by a sheaf of corn he carries; likewise, the
bishop carries a candle.

There are few laws in Utopia, no more than a well-organized Complicated laws arise when societies are elaborately stratified into
society requires. The Utopians disapprove of other nations’ social classes and when people have the license to pursue bad
innumerable books of convoluted laws more than anything else, luxuries and false pleasures. The simplicity of Utopia’s structure is
because they believe that a citizen should be able to read and reflected in the simplicity of its laws. The practical Utopians
understand all the laws to which he or she is bound. Lawyers appreciate plain readings of law as opposed to cunning misreadings
are banned from Utopia for being too cunning in their designed to serve private interests. Ironically, Thomas More the
interpretations of the law; every person represents him- or author was himself a lawyer.
herself in legal matters, which brings truth to light sooner in the
mind of a wise judge. The Utopians favor the plainest
interpretation of a law as being the most just.

Because the Utopians are so virtuous, neighboring countries Hythloday begins Utopia by arguing that good counselors can’t do
(many of which the Utopians have liberated from tyranny) good in the service of princes. The Utopians must disagree,
invite Utopians to serve as their magistrates. People who are so however—why else would Utopians go abroad to provide counsel to
invited are allowed to go and serve, some for a year, some for foreign governments?
five years, and they are welcomed home with honor and praise.

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That being said, the Utopians do not make political alliances While Utopia first and foremost takes care of its own citizens, we
with other nations, because such alliances are so often broken have also seen that the Utopian concept of the “public good” often
as part of deceitful stratagems, as is the case in Europe. Also, extends to the people of the world at large. This is both ideal in
the idea of alliances presupposes natural enmity between promoting universal friendship, and also practical—people you treat
nations, which the Utopians reject. They think no one is an well are less likely to do you harm.
enemy who has not done them injury, and that people are
naturally allied to one another in love and goodwill, which are
stronger than mere words can ever be.

BOOK 2: OF THEIR MILITARY DISCIPLINE

The Utopians hate war, battle, and the glory gotten in The Utopians are practical enough to know that people are likely to
war—after all, not even wild beasts fight. Nonetheless, the men prey on the unprepared, hence their military drills. But how do they
and women of Utopia daily practice the discipline of war in case know that “delivering” a people from tyranny will not just lead to
the need arises. The Utopians fight only to defend themselves, more evils? It is perhaps inconsistent of the Utopians, who value
to protect their friends from invaders, or to deliver a people people more than money, to kill over trade disputes. Moreover, no
from tyranny. They also go to war sometimes on behalf of rationale is given for this.
friends for the sake of avenging past injuries, but only if those
injuries are fresh and their enemy refuses to make restitution.
Finally, the Utopians go to war if their friends’ merchants have
been cheated trading abroad due to a failure of justice.

While the Utopians go to war on behalf of their friends in It is admirable that the Utopians are so loyal to their friends as to
matters of money, when they themselves are so cheated by a fight on their behalf. But if the Utopians have in fact designed the
nation they avenge themselves only by refusing to trade with perfect society, why would they be complicit in helping other
that nation until restitution is made. This is because they take nations maintain their imperfect systems? Perhaps it is just
the loss of their friends’ privately held money more heavily impractical to expect that utopian excellence should be established
than the loss of their own, as their citizens do not feel the loss. in other commonwealths.
However, if Utopians are killed abroad and the offenders are
not handed over to Utopia, the Utopians declare war.
Offenders in such a case are punished with death or bondage.

The Utopians are ashamed to achieve victory with bloodshed, The Utopians love health and respect human life, so it makes good
and would rather win through wit, craft, and deceit. They sense that they would rather satisfy their objectives through
commemorate a bloodless victory by setting up a pillar of stone intelligence than through blood. But history forces us to question
in the place where they vanquished their enemy. They believe whether being cruel to one’s enemies is really an effective policy for
that bodily strength is for beasts; reason is for human beings. deterring future conflict, or whether it only stirs up more anger and
The Utopians avoid war whenever possible, but, when they strife.
must fight, they are especially cruel to those who have
offended them, in order to deter future conflict.

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Unlike many of their European counterparts, Utopians fight The Utopians’ objective is to end war as quickly and bloodlessly as
“dirty” in war: they distribute pamphlets among their enemy’s possible, hence their use of tactics that a chivalric, warlike prince
population, promising substantial rewards of gold and land to might consider dishonorable (the irony, of course, is that waging war
anyone who kills or captures their enemy’s prince and other in the first place is a far more “dishonorable” thing, no matter how
proclaimed adversaries—alive is worth twice as much as dead. many rules one follows in killing others). The Utopians do not
These proclaimed adversaries may also turn themselves in to prolong bloodshed for the sake of hollow glory. Note that the
the Utopians, claim the reward, and be assured of their lives. Utopians would rather have their prisoners alive than dead—this is
Such policy throws Utopia’s enemies into suspicion of one because the dead are useless, whereas the living can serve the
another, and it also saves innocent lives. public good as slaves.

Utopia holds its citizens so dear that they aren’t deployed in At the beginning of Utopia, the lawyer defends idleness as
war unless the need arises. Instead, the Utopians store up gold, contributing to the strength of the English army. The Utopians
silver, and debt abroad for virtually one purpose alone: to avoid would respond that a standing army has no place in a
war altogether, or to hire mercenaries to fight on their behalf. commonwealth that values its citizens and peace. Instead, the
They usually hire the Zapoletes (from the Greek meaning Utopians pragmatically hire mercenaries, both to spare their people
“those who will sell anything”). The Zapoletes are a savage, wild the horrors of war, as well as to make sure that Utopian operations
people (modeled after the notorious Swiss mercenaries of are not interrupted. This section also shows the Utopians at their
Thomas More’s time) who live by hunting, stealing, and fighting. most disturbingly practical: they prefer to hire the Zapoletes, who
The Utopians command the loyalty of the Zapoletes by paying value gold more than their own lives, because (according to them)
them more than any other nation, although so many of these the world is better off without such people, and because the dead
mercenaries die in battle that the Utopians end up paying need not be paid. The idea of “washing away” an entire people has
relatively little. Moreover, the Utopians don’t care if the wicked further implications of genocide and “ethnic cleansing.”
Zapoletes die; they think it would be better if such people were
washed from the world.

Other than mercenaries, the Utopians use their friends’ Just as the Utopians don’t force the incurably ill to die, so too they
soldiers and, only as a last result, their own citizens, governed don’t force cowards into warfare. The common principle is that
by one virtuous Utopian with two officers appointed under him people only excel when they’re fully invested in what they’re doing.
who take his place if he is killed. The Utopians don’t force In warfare, moreover, it is impractical to have a coward in the ranks,
citizens to go to war; their army consists only of willing for he endangers good soldiers with his weakness.
volunteers, because a coward is dangerous to his fellows. In
case of invasion, cowards are put among brave men in shops or
are assigned to defend the walls. Extreme necessity often turns
cowardice to bravery.

Women can accompany their husbands to battle, where they The family is the core unit of Utopian society, and this is especially
offer praise. A man fights among his kinfolk, because then he is true on the battlefield. This is because people are spurred on to
more ready to support them and they him. It is seen as courage when surrounded by those they love, both to protect their
shameful for a husband to survive his wife in war, or for a son to loved ones and to avoid shame. (More derives this argument from
survive his father, and so Utopian soldiers often fight all the Plato’s Symposium.) Utopians need not fear death, because all
more courageously, with great slaughter and bloodshed, even Utopians are equally cared for no matter what. In this way,
though they would rather avoid war altogether. The fact that a communal values are self-supporting.
Utopian soldier’s family is taken care of no matter what also
makes him more courageous in battle. The Utopians neither
throw their lives away in war nor resort to cowardice to save
themselves.

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In battle, the Utopians select a band of fit young men who are A chivalric prince would consider the targeting of captains in war
tasked with the assassination of their enemy’s captain, which highly dishonorable, but the Utopians want nothing to do with
they accomplish through cunning and open strength. In their battlefield honor, only minimal bloodshed and swift peace. Even
assault on this captain, wearied men are replaced by fresh ones, though the Utopians have built an ideal society, they can still lose
and the Utopians rarely fail to kill or (preferably) capture their battles, it would seem..
target. Moreover, the Utopians never send all of their forces to
pursue a retreating enemy. When forced to retreat themselves,
the Utopians excel in staging cunning ambushes, which often
turn the tide of battle. Utopians fortify their camp with a deep,
broad trench, made not by bondmen but by the soldiers
themselves.

The Utopians wear strong, flexible armor they can swim in, and The flexibility of the Utopians’ army reflects the practicality of their
they fight with arrows, shot by footmen and horsemen alike. In society in general, as does their preference for the poleaxe, which
hand-to-hand combat they use poleaxes, which are deadly by can be used to thrust or cut, unlike a spear or sword, which generally
point and blade alike. The Utopians are ingenious inventors of does one or the other, not both.
war machines.

The Utopians honor their truces even if provoked. They do not Consistent with their principle of promoting peace and wasting
steal from their enemies or destroy their land and crops. They nothing, the Utopians lay waste to nothing that comes into their
do not hurt unarmed men, except for spies. They defend all possession over the course of warfare. We might think it rather
cities surrendered to them and destroy none. If there are those severe, however, to punish patriots who urge the defense of their
among the enemy who insisted on defending a city, the own cities, or to punish enemy combatants. Do such people really
Utopians punish them with death. Other soldiers captured in have control in such matters, and can they really be held
battle are punished with bondage. Anyone who counseled that accountable? The Utopians neither gain nor lose anything from
a city be surrendered to the Utopians is rewarded with the warfare, but come out where they were before the conflict began.
condemned men’s goods; the rest of those goods are
distributed to those who aided the Utopians. The Utopians
take no booty for themselves, and the conquered nation pays
for the costs of the war in money and land.

BOOK 2: OF THE RELIGIONS OF THE UTOPIANS

Hythloday turns now to his last topic: the religions in Utopia. All One of the most distinctive features of Utopian society is its
over the island, and even within a given city, people worship religious freedom (something Thomas More the man actively
different deities, from the sun to great heroes of the past. repressed). However, the deeper suggestion here is that the
However, most Utopians, and the wisest, believe that God is Utopians understand all gods to be images of one common truth.
eternal, incomprehensible, and inexplicable, dispersed (Unsurprisingly, given More’s Catholic convictions, this truth sounds
throughout the world as power and virtue. He is the creator of like what’s endorsed by Catholic theology.) The Utopians apparently
all things and the end of all things. All Utopians, despite find the majority’s idea of God most compelling, however, for they
diverging opinions on the form God takes, nonetheless agree are adopting it of their own free will.
that there is one chief and principal Supreme Being, the maker
and ruler of the world, and this Being they call Mithras (a
Persian god, worshipped in Rome as the god of the sun).
Utopians are more and more turning away from superstitions
and joining the majority in their beliefs.

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When Hythloday and his companions introduced Christ’s This passage in Utopia reads almost like Christian propaganda—the
doctrine, laws, and miracles to the Utopians, a surprising best people in the world immediately open their hears to what
number were inclined to receive it. This may have been due to Thomas More believes to be the best religion in the world. However,
divine influence, but also to the fact that Christ advocated Christ is an important touchstone for Utopia’s vision of a society
collective ownership of resources, as is practiced in without property or class, and for the devout More to present
monasteries and convents. Many Utopians received baptism Christianity as anything less than correct would be unthinkable.
while Hythloday was there and wanted a priest to perform
other Christian sacraments.

The Utopians are tolerant of all religions, but they do not Thomas More the man was a devout Catholic who, during the
permit people to condemn other religions. In Hythloday’s Reformation, tortured Protestants and approved of burning them at
presence, one newly baptized Utopian began to condemn as the stake as heretics. It is darkly ironic, then, that his utopian vision
wicked and devilish all religions but Christianity; he was should be one in which people who condemn other religions are
promptly exiled for sedition and for raising up dissent among subject to exile or bondage. One reason the Utopians honor religious
the people. Religious tolerance was instituted by Utopus freedom is practical: religious disagreement causes strife in a
himself when he observed how religious disagreement caused commonwealth, which leaves them vulnerable to invaders.
strife among the natives of the island—and was what enabled
his conquest of them in the first place. For the sake of peace, he
established a law protecting religious freedom. People may
attempt to convert others to their religious opinions with
gentle speech, but not with violence and hurtful words. The
punishment is exile or bondage.

Utopus reasoned that religious freedom promotes not only Even if More the man agreed with Utopus’s line of reasoning here in
peace, but that it is part of God’s will. God must desire diverse principle, in practice he could not or would not pursue it. This is one
forms of worship and honor, as he inspires different people of the most powerful of the many ambiguities regarding Utopia that
with different religions. Moreover, even if there were only one are necessary to understand when reading the text.
true religion, its truth would eventually convert everyone
without violence or force anyway. If people could speak
intolerantly of other religions, however, it is quite likely they
would defame this one true religion, just as weeds overgrow
corn.

Utopus did decree some limits on faith: no religion should Utopus seems to affirm the immortality of the soul and providence,
declare that a man’s soul perishes with his body, or that the among other things, not because he knows these to be true, but,
world is governed by chance. The Utopians believe, rather, that more pragmatically, because people who believe such things
good deeds are rewarded, and bad deeds punished, in the conduct themselves more virtuously. Or so he thinks, anyway. Only
afterlife. The irreligious, or atheists, in Utopia are not punished, atheism brings with it negative consequences in Utopia, although
except in being excluded from all honors and offices, as well as we might contest the Utopians’ belief that atheists are necessarily
being generally despised. This is because the Utopians are more antisocial than anyone else. Recall Hythloday’s claim, after all,
convinced that, if one does not have religion, one will that the Utopians’ virtue ethics could survive a lack of religious
necessarily mock the faithful or break the country’s laws. grounding.
Atheists cannot argue their views among the general public,
but they are encouraged to argue with priests, in the hopes
that they will see the madness of their irreligious ways.

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Contrary to the atheists, there are heretics in Utopia who The Utopians do not permit mankind’s dignity to suffer, but they do
believe that the souls of animals are immortal, but these people not mind if the dignity of other animals is inflated. No reason is
are allowed to speak their minds and they share all the liberties given for the Utopians’ belief in an afterlife other than as a practical
other Utopians do. However, all religious Utopians believe that incentive for good conduct and a high ideal.
human souls especially are predestined for great happiness in
the afterlife.

Consequently, while the Utopians lament sickness, they do not Because the Utopians believe in an afterlife, they do not fear death
lament death—that is, unless someone dies unwillingly. They (at least in theory). An unwilling death, however, suggests that
take unwilling death as a bad sign that a soul fears punishment someone either has unfinished business on earth, or that they do
in the afterlife. Someone who dies an unwilling death is buried, not authentically believe in an afterlife, both of which would trouble
but people who die willing, happy deaths are celebrated, the Utopians. The dead pragmatically serve as good examples and
praised, and cremated. The dead person’s virtue and good sources of spiritual courage for the living—even death can be used
deeds are remembered to encourage virtue in others, and the for practical purposes in Utopia.
dead are thought to be invisibly present among the living,
which gives the living courage.

The Utopians despise and mock people who try to predict the Because God and His providence are unknowable, it is vain to
future, like soothsayers. However, they do believe in attempt to foresee future events. Miracles are a commonplace
supernatural miracles, which they consider to be the works of reality in Utopia—perhaps More the author is suggesting that the
God; indeed, miracles are said to be common occurrences in Utopians truly deserve miracles as rewards for their excellence.
Utopia. In times of great need, Utopians hopefully and
confidently pray for divine aid, which is often granted to them.

The Utopians believe that the contemplation of nature is a form Given how work-oriented Utopian society it is, it is not surprising
of praising God, although some among them forego learning that some think the best way to praise God is to rigorously labor in
altogether in order to dedicate themselves solely to work and service of the public good.
to God, for they think that happiness comes of “busy labours
and good exercises.” Such people, known as Buthrescas (from
the Greek meaning “very religious”), do hard, unpleasant work
willingly.

There are two sects of these religiously hardworking The only Utopians who seem altogether unpractical are the holier
Buthrescas. The members of one abstain from carnal pleasures among the Buthrescas, who give up many pleasures to serve
like sex and eating meat; the members of the other work just as God—yet even they are of great service to the commonwealth. Note
hard but do not abstain from such pleasures, thinking that that, unlike many European churchmen who abstained from labor,
procreation is a public good and meat is a potent fuel for labor. holy people work in Utopia harder than anyone.
Members of the first sect are considered holier in Utopia, while
members of the second are considered wiser.

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There are very few priests in Utopia—thirteen per city, one for Just like the Utopian magistrates, the priests are elected to their
each temple—but they are of exceeding holiness. The people office and given nothing except what their own virtue and holiness
elect their priests by secret ballot. Over the priests of each city merit. Whereas the Philarchs make sure people are doing their work,
is set a bishop, and together these religious officials oversee all the priests make sure that people are living virtuously. Perhaps the
divine matters and orders of religions; they are also judges and priests do not punish bad conduct because their sphere of activity is
masters of conduct in Utopia. It is shameful to be rebuked by a the human soul, which cannot be truly punished by any other than
priest for immoral living. The priests differ from the secular divine agency. Earlier in Utopia we read of a friar who threatened to
magistrates in that they only offer advice and counsel, whereas excommunicate a joker—Utopian priests, we might imagine, would
magistrates punish bad conduct. The only exception to this is do no such thing.
that priests can excommunicate immoral Utopians and bar
them from religious occasions. Religious values are instilled in
Utopians from childhood.

Both men and women can become priests in Utopia (although In Renaissance Europe, only men could be priests—the Utopians, in
the women elected tend to be old or widows). Male priests take admitting women to the priesthood, are ahead of their time. The
for their wives the foremost women in the country. If a priest Utopians are so rigorous in their election of public officials that they
commits an offence, their judgment is left to God and to rarely have occasion to regret their decisions. In addition to
themselves; but priests are so virtuous that few fall to promoting virtue in Utopia, the priests serve the practical function
wickedness, and their position is not one of power so much as of saving lives on the battlefield. This is a case where military
one of honor, anyway. Utopian priests are also deeply pragmatism and ideal holiness come together to benefit the
respected abroad; Hythloday recalls how in battle the priests Utopians and others alike.
protect enemy combatants from being slaughtered when the
Utopians get the upper hand. When the Utopian army retreats,
the priests intercept their pursuers and often succeed in
making peace.

The Utopian holy days fall on the first and last day of each The Utopians promote religious unity by holding worship in the
month and year. The first days are called Cynemernes (from the same churches for all—this creates a more communal environment
Greek meaning “dog day,” associated perhaps with the Greek for worship and, consequently, a more unified society. The Utopians
goddess Hecate), and the last are called Trapemernes (from the understand the divine to exist on a plane that transcends our own,
Greek meaning “changing day”). The Utopians worship in large, hence their dimming of the churches. After all, a transcendent god
gorgeous churches which are intentionally kept somewhat dark cannot be at all perceived by the senses of sight, hearing, or smell
so that people focus more earnestly upon religion and (although in the real world, these things certainly help).
devotion. Even though Utopians hold diverse religious
opinions, they all worship in the same churches, where what is
common to all of them is taught. No image of God is displayed
so that people are free to conceive of God as they will. Private
ceremonies and practices may be freely held at home.

The Utopians worship on Trapemernes days after fasting to The practice of confessing one’s sins as the Utopians do is
give thanks to God; they worship on Cynemernes days to pray distinctive of Catholicism—More the author seems to be insinuating
for fortune and success in the coming days. Before worshipping rather propagandistically that Utopian religion is more essentially
on Trapemernes, wives confess their offenses to their Catholic than anything else. The separation of the sexes during
husbands, and children confess to their parents. People in Utopian worship is presumably meant to neutralize any sexual
quarrels reconcile, because Utopians fear worshipping with a feelings people may have, making it so they can more purely focus
troubled conscience. In the churches, men sit on the right side, on God.
women on the left, and in such a way that elders can observe
their conduct. The young sit interspersed with their elders for
the same reason.

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The Utopians sacrifice no living animals, nor do they think God In keeping with their compassion and respect for life, the Utopians
delights in blood and slaughter—especially because he has do not sacrifice any animals, which is both impractically wasteful
given life to animals so that people can live. Incense and candles and disrespectful to God as the source of life. Even in religious
are burned and prayers are said, not for the pleasure of God, worship, the Utopians enjoy sensuous pleasures (More seems to
but because such practices harmlessly please and inspire the have the Catholic practice of releasing incense during worship in
Utopians. People worship in white clothing, and the priests mind here).
wear vestments of many colors, not precious but fashioned well
with symbolically meaningful feathers interwoven into them.

When a priest enters to begin worship, the people bow down as Again, although Utopia is a society of religious freedom, its form of
though God himself had entered. They rise at the priest’s signal worship seems decidedly Catholic, both in form and content.
and sing praises to God, accompanied by foreign musical Thomas More the author is ironically never more divisive in Utopia,
instruments. The Utopians’ music is better than the Europeans’ perhaps, than in this section on religion.
because it perfectly marries meaning and sound. In their
prayers, the Utopians acknowledge God to be their maker and
the principal cause of all goodness, and they thank him,
especially for the benefits he’s showered on their
commonwealth. They also pray to join God in the afterlife at his
pleasure.

BOOK 2: CONCLUSION
Hythloday says that he has described as truly as possible the Hythloday concludes by summarizing Utopia’s merits and
form and order of Utopia, which he thinks is not only the best comparing its collective economy favorably to the property-based
commonwealth in the world but also the only one worthy of the economies of European commonwealths. He emphasizes his
name “commonwealth,” for nothing is private there. Unlike overarching argument that private property gives rise to both pride
nations founded on the institution of private property, Utopia and idleness, and that together these spawn poverty and misery.
provides equally and abundantly for all its citizens. There is no
justice when a banker or usurer can sit idly and live richly while
common laborers live in poverty and misery, as is the case in
Europe.

Indeed, Hythloday sees in most nations a conspiracy by which Hythloday connects his argument about private property and pride
rich people exploit and oppress the poor. By getting rid of to Christian teachings, specifically by condemning the institution of
money, the Utopians pull wickedness up by the root and private property as unchristian. The image of falling empires is an
eliminate poverty, too. If it were not for Pride, Hythloday thinks allusion to the “bad” empires of the Bible: Egypt, Babylon, and
that Europeans would have followed Christ’s teachings and Rome. Despite its Christianity, Europe more resembles these,
abolished private property long ago as well. The Utopians have Hythloday suggests, than it does Utopia.
devised such a prosperous, virtuous, and peaceful way of life
that their commonwealth will endure while empires fall around
it.

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Thus ends Hythloday’s tale. Thomas More thinks to himself More’s disagreement with Hythloday’s major findings is a source of
that many Utopian laws and policies are founded on no good much ambiguity in Utopia, and further adds to the “slipperiness” of
reason, even when it comes to the principal foundation of their the work. This brief reaction of More to Hythloday leaves us with
ordinances—that is, their collective ownership of resources and more questions than answers. Does More the author agree with
moneyless economy. However, Hythloday seems weary from More the character? Is he presenting Hythloday and Utopia as
his discourse, and More doesn’t want to offend him by ideals, or as symbols of nonsense, or something in between? Does he
disagreeing with his claims (Hythloday said earlier, after all, agree with the society of Utopia (which he himself created, after all)
that we contradict others’ ideas only because we didn’t come that abolishing private property is inherently good? Does he just
up with them ourselves). consider it hugely impractical and an unrealistic ideal for Europe, or
does he think Utopia to be founded on “no good reason” altogether?

Consequently, More praises the Utopians and leads Hythloday More’s response to Hythloday’s account of Utopia is never
back into the house for dinner, saying that they will examine presented to us, and so all our questions are left unanswered. This
and evaluate the Utopians’ laws and policies at another time, ending adds to the sense of the work as a “joke” or a playful satire,
which More hopes to God will come to pass. For now, More but perhaps the suggestion is also that we as readers are responsible
cannot agree with Hythloday in everything; however, he for conducting that dialogue among ourselves. The text requires
confesses that, though he wishes for many features of Utopia that we reason for ourselves about Utopia, and what system of
to be realized in Europe’s cities, he doesn’t dare hope as much, governing might be best for an ideal society. This is, after all, the first
for such a hope would be unrealistic. step we all must take before any utopia can become a reality.

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To cite any of the quotes from Utopia covered in the Quotes

HOW T
TO
O CITE section of this LitChart:
To cite this LitChart: MLA
MLA More, Sir Thomas. Utopia. Oxford University Press. 2009.
Wilson, Joshua. "Utopia." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 9 May 2016. CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
Web. 21 Apr 2020.
More, Sir Thomas. Utopia. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2009.
CHICA
CHICAGO
GO MANU
MANUAL
AL
Wilson, Joshua. "Utopia." LitCharts LLC, May 9, 2016. Retrieved
April 21, 2020. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/utopia.

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