Utopia
Focus Question: How does More comment on his times through Utopia?Syllabus outcome: Describe the interrelationship between the religious environment and the social and cultural context on which the literature draws. Introduction: When I chose to review Utopia, I can honestly say that I had no idea of what I was letting myself in for. The book is so complex and there are so many conflicting ideas and interpretations that for a time I considered changing to an easier topic. However, Utopia is a fascinating book and gives an insight in European society just prior to the Reformation - obviously a time of major upheaval. My initial focus question was : How does Thomas More demonstrate in his book "Utopia" the hypocrisy of Christianity throughout the middle ages and how does he comment on possible solutions. However this question was much too broad and I felt that I was missing the whole point of the text and the insight it gives. So I modified the question to "How does Thomas More comment on his times through Utopia." Commentaries on Utopia were fairly hard to come by as shown in my diary, though I did find some useful texts. The movie "a man for all seasons" also gave an interesting insight into the life of Thomas More. It mus
By creating an imaginary Utopia he is satirising the corruption in the church and aristocracy and pushing for humanist reform. More was confused by both the optimism and pessimism, the prosperity and poverty of the age. "That Utopia does not attempt a final solution of the problems of human society - for More was to wise to attempt the impossible - but it contains an appeal addressed to all of us, which allows of no refusal, that we should try to do each one his share to mend our own selves and ease the burden of our fellow-men, to improve man-kind and prepare for the world to come. Therefore More is commenting on the extent of European wickedness. He further describes how, that in the social context of 16th Century Europe men were forced to steal out of desperation and starvation. More's humanist affiliation can be seen from the fact that in many ways Utopia has a connection with Plato's republic, for example in Book 1, More begins his book in the form of a debate just as Plato had done. "When money itself ceases to be useful, all greed for it is also entirely submerged; then what a heap of troubles is leveled down, what a crop of enormities is pulled up by the roots. Utopia was published in 1516; one year before Luther posted his 95 theses at Witenberg and the reformation officially began. Overall Utopia was a fascinating topic for research and I enjoyed learning more about it. Others claim that More had Utopia in mind as a positive ideal to work towards, though his epitaph would contradict this. However there is much more to Utopia then this and when considered in the religious, social and cultural context of the times it is a call for individual repentance. It would be easy to read Utopia as simply that, a perfect place and something to move toward. The Church was becoming increasingly corrupt, greedy rulers were waging wars throughout Europe to fulfill their own petty ambitions and the renaissance was causing a cultural uprising.
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