Utopia by Zhou Qing (ES02168)

A  brief analysis about "Utopia"

As the 14th century of Italy, the Renaissance began in England with the rediscovery of Greek and Roman classical culture. The university restored the ancient Greek teaching and appeared the large-scale translation activities.Ancient Greek, Roman, modern Italian, French and other academic and literary classics were translated into early modern English by scholars and writers. Philosopher, educator, historian, statesman,religious people have written and expressed humanism in different ways, including Thomas more’s "Utopia" were written in Latin.

   In the book, More used the mouth of an overseas tourist,Raphael Hythloday to talk about his thinking about reality and his vision for the future. In his book, More firstly used "sheep to eat man" to expose the evil of "land enclosure movement"and put forward public ownership, discussed the people oriented, harmonious coexistence, freedom of marriage, respect for women's rights and other issues closely related to modern life. The book is divided into two parts, the first part exposes the shortcomings of British society at that time, the second part is a comprehensive description of the image of Utopia New Island.      

The first part :

The first part made a bitter satire and criticism on the political, economic and social life of Britain and even the whole Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries and made a fierce attack on the feudal autocratic monarchy. He was acutely aware that the monarchy was a tool for oppressing the people and that the law was merely "defining their schemes as something that must be observed". Using a foreign tourist ,Raphael Hythloday .Moore pointed out that it was private ownership that caused all kinds of social evils, which was his historical summary of thousands of years of private ownership.

The second part:

 In the second part of Utopia, More painted us an idealistic picture of utopian socialism. Unlike Plato's "utopia", More's "utopia" is not a consumptive communism but a communist society in which everyone works, distributes according to needs, shares property, destroys private ownership and eliminates exploitation. In this part, Moore used eight less noticeable titles to systematically plan the main features of utopia in the ideal society, such as politics, economy, science and culture, social life, religion, foreign relations, and so on.

  It can be seen from the above that More, who lived more than 400 years ago, not only profoundly penetrated and exposed various contradictions of that era, but also gave rise to what had just arisen at that time. The capitalist relations of production, which have historically developed to the highest point of private ownership, have been hit with a blow; moreover, they have given people a brilliant picture of the ideal society of mankind. Moore was also recognized as the first great utopian socialist in Western Europe by these geniuses.However, as a humanist living in the 16th century, More has great limitations because of his special historical conditions and his own way of thinking.Moore wrote "Utopia" in order to persuade the rulers of the time to carry out social reform, his basic position is to maintain the order of social rule at that time. The original Utopia is in Latin, which determines that it can only be circulated in the upper class without having any effect on the lower classes.

  In short, More's utopia is a peaceful and beautiful country. Some places may not be reasonable, but this is More and even many people yearn for a peach blossom. With the development and progress of society, many good institutions in Utopia have been realized in reality. This is a very happy thing. I hope that one day the world will become a big utopia with reasonable development.