Skip to main content

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.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Cavalier Poets by Khalil Norsham (194807)

The Cavalier Poets During the Post-Renaissance period, there were three separate eras, which were the Caroline Era, the Restoration Period and also the Augustan Age. I found the Caroline Era really interesting, especially when it comes to a group of poets who called themselves the Cavalier Poets. So how did they got their name? What about the characteristics of these poets? And who are the Cavalier Poets? The Cavalier Poets are actually a group of poets who supported King Charles I who was an expert and really love fine arts. They are members of aristrocracy and often linked to Royalist as their main purpose in their poetry was to glorify the king. The Cavalier Poets were totally different from the traditional poet who loves to talk about philosophy and religion. They love to express more on celebratory things or expressing their joy. To them, enjoying life was far more important rather than following moral codes. Most of their poems hold an attitude of "carpe diem" which ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sonnet 18 by Nor Syahira Asyiqin (193449)

SHAKESPEARE’S SONNET Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day? Last semester, my friend and I analayzed Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day? by William Shakespeare for our class, A Survey of Prose Forms and Poetry in English. I was intimidated at first when our lecturer chose us to do this sonnet, and it was the only sonnet out of the list of poems for that course. William Shakespeare was one of the most eminent writers in the history of classic literature, so undoubtedly I would be apprehensive because the last thing that I want to do is giving my classmates the wrong information regarding this sonnet. Thus, I embarked on my journey through the world of Internet. I read this sonnet for the first time and I didn’t understand what Shakespeare was trying to say at all. I never liked poems anyway, so to me it was incomprehensible. I was basically clueless to put it lightly. I mean I knew it has some romantic elements to it (it’s Shakespeare we’re talking abou...
Post a Comment
Read more

Victorian Society by Muhammad Amzar (182839)

Victorian Society Introduction The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria’s reign from 20th June 1837 until her death on 22nd January 1901.It was a long period of peace, prosperity and refined sensibility. Major Events of the Victorian Era Some of the major events that took place during the Victorian era and influenced the literature of that time include: 1. A huge growth in population. 2. The Victorian era slightly overlaps with British Industrial Revolution. It witnessed big changes to the way people lived, worked and travelled. 3. In addition to the major developments in technology, there were emerging scientific beliefs like Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. 4. And finally, there were poor conditions for working class. The Industrial Revolution led to the distance between the halves and halvenots. Hence, the writers felt obligated to speak out against the societal injustice. Defining Victorian Literature in any satisfactory and...
1 comment
Read more