Thomas More Essay, Research Paper

More’s purpose in writing utopia was quite clearly to open people’s eyes to the social and political evils of the world around them, e.g. inflation, corruption, maltreatment of the poor, wars for little or no purpose, courtly ostentation, the misuse of power by absolute monarchs, etc. More used works of Greek derivation to make his point. “Thus, Hythlodaeus means “dispenser of nonsense”; Utopia means “not place”; Anydrus, the name of a river, means “not river”; and Ademus, the title of the Chief Magistrate means “not people”’. It is clear from a letter to peter gilles that more expected his educated readers to understand the significance of these names because he deliberately used Greek names for places and official titles and also because he wished his readers to realize that they were imaginary. Difficulties have arisen for many readers because More, a devout Roman Catholic, advocated euthanasia, marriage of priests, divorce by mutual consent on grounds of incompatibility, allowing future husbands and wives to see each other naked before agreeing to marriage. Many readers also believe that the basic ideas expressed in Utopia are communistic. Even in the 1990’s Utopia reams a highly readable book, but it must be noted that it does not represent a positive ideal, but a negative attack on European wickedness as perceived by More. Its object was to shame Christians into behaving not worse, as they did then, but far better then the poor utopian hetahtn. ‘It is expressed in a timeless medium, which cuts it loose from its own particular age and saves it from ever seeming linguistically old fashioned or difficult.”