Introduction
A Utopian vision need not necessarily be a useful one, if, for instance, it is impossibly unworkable or utterly unsuited to life as we know it on our planet and in our surroundings. Such a vision might prompt the reader to think more closely about the true nature of life, but it may not be particularly pragmatic. Sir Thomas More’s vision of life in his imagined Utopia, which set a trend for many future writers, might appear unpractical, but there is nothing to suggest that his vision is marked by a lack of pragmatism—for he speaks of practice rather than theory, of things that the Utopians have done rather than what their laws or their Scriptures require them to do.
Discussion
The present study focuses on three sections of Utopia—the section on “Trades and Manner of Life”, that on “Traffic”, and the one intriguingly titled “On Slaves and Marriage.” The aim of the study is to relate the perennial appeal of the text to the particular point of view it presents on economics and political relations; on family life and social structure; on art and culture, and on belief and value systems, in a situation supposedly as near the practical ideal of perfection as possible among human beings.
It is a generally accepted fact that culture developed with agriculture, and much of present day barbarity could perhaps be related to the decline of human involvement in agriculture. The notion that agriculture is “so universally understood” and so generally practiced by all Utopians in More’s vision suggests that no Utopian would ever have to suffer the modern syndrome of boredom, especially because of the universal practice of at least one other trade in addition to agriculture.
The ‘syphogrants’ who oversee a group of thirty families have as their chief concern to take care that “no man may live idle, but that every one may follow his trade diligently.” However, the Utopians take care not to wear themselves out with work. Their work day is carefully measured and they put in six hours of their best effort at the times that are found to be best suited to it. The leisure available to them they do not “abuse” to “luxury and idleness.” Instead they spend such time in reading, listening to public lectures, or practicing their own trades(in which case they are not looked down upon for not being ‘cultured’ but are respected for taking that much “care to serve their country”).
They have not even heard of games of chance but sometimes indulge themselves in a game “not unlike our chess” and in another that “resembles a battle between the virtues and the vices.” The practical wisdom of these arrangements can be seen in the fact that the limited time that they spend in work, is, in fact, more than enough to ensure that they have “plenty of all things, either necessary or convenient.” The syphogrants are exempt from work, but they too provide a model to the populace by engaging in voluntary work. Those who show particular promise of exceling in studies are allowed to set apart their energies for intellectual work, but if their promise does not translate into performance, they are brought back into the stream of ordinary workers, just as a mechanic who excels in philosophy would be encouraged to devote himself to study. The Utopians do not over-emphasize the importance of physical diligence:
The magistrates never engage the people in unnecessary labor, since the chief end of the constitution is to regulate labor by the necessities of the public, and to allow all the people as much time as is necessary for the improvement of their minds, in which they think the happiness of life consists.
An awareness of the truth that the happiness of life consists in the improvement of the minds of the people is the sign of a truly advanced system.
The primary unit of the city is the family. There are rules to regulate the number of people in each family to the desired optimum and ways and means by which any deficiency or excess could be rectified. Such regulations are invoked to remedy any shortfall or excess in the number of inhabitants of a city or even of a colony outside the limits of the state. The oldest man of each family, so long as he is sound in mind and body, is the governor of the family and “always the younger serves the elder.” In the middle of each city is a marketplace to which people bring the things that they produce and from which they take the things that they require—without any hard and fast conditions regarding barter or exchange. The supply and the receipt of goods in the market is purely on the basis of need, with the sole proviso that hospitals for the sick are supplied before everyone else. The hospitals are outside city limits (to minimize the risk of contagion) but they are so well set up and maintained that the sick generally manage to enjoy their stay there. Utopians who live in the towns usually come together in public for meals and all old people are served first, helped by even the youngest children who are old enough to wait at table.
The section of Utopia that deals with their customs of marriage starts by speaking of the ‘slaves’ who are assigned almost all the menial work. Slaves are not descended from slaves or captured from other countries—slavery is the Utopian punishment reserved for all criminals except those who are incorrigible and unredeemable. The fact that people of poor countries apply to Utopia to be taken on as temporary slaves can be considered proof that slaves are generally well-treated. The care with which the sick of Utopia are universally treated is indeed remarkable, but such of the sick who suffer from lingering diseases are advised to end their lives and given the help and encouragement required for such final treatment. Sufferers who are not patient enough to wait for such advice are summarily dealt with—their bodies are thrown into a ditch; and the sick who may find the advice unacceptable are not forced to do so, the community continuing to look after them as assiduously as before.
Women may not marry before eighteen and neither may they marry men who are not yet twenty two. Premarital sex is punished, as is adultery, and divorces are granted only in cases of adultery or “insufferable perverseness.” Before marriage a man of gravity presents the man, unclothed, to the woman for inspection while a ‘grave matron’ performs a similar service for the bridegroom—for no one need be forced to buy a pig in a poke, especially when the situation is one that demands as permanent an attachment as marriage. After marriage, husbands have the power to correct their wives just as parents have the power to chastise children. The punishment for major crimes is decided by the Senate and the usual punishment is slavery for a period that may be long or short depending on the nature of the crime and the behavior of the criminal during his punishment.
Utopians have “few laws” and “no lawyers” Such laws as they have are easily understood by all. No man who aspires to any office will ever attain it, for offices are not meant to gratify any private desires or ambitions. Indeed, the people of other nations sometimes clamor for the services of Utopian governors, who may be assigned to such positions abroad for one year or for five, depending upon the particular contingency. All Utopians are dressed and arrayed alike, be he a prince or a priest. The fools of Utopia are treated with especial consideration in honor of the service rendered by them in diverting the general public.
These ideas that bring into prominence the system of trade and commerce and political and domestic relations in Utopia: the provision for particular treatment for the old and the sick, the universal practice of agriculture, the practice of at least one other profession in addition to agriculture, the open-eyed entry into the portals of marriage from which only death could drive one out, the simplicity of the law and the absolute lack of lawyers, the absolute equality of all citizens and their generosity even to those outside their system—these ensure and explain the appeal of Thomas More’s work and also suggest that these ideas and ideals appeal because there are pragmatic, because we know that such a life is almost within our grasp if only we care to exert ourselves a little for it.
Works Cited
More, Thomas. Utopia. Web.