More seemed to put it off as Utopia being the greatest in society. Similar to what we said in class as if it was an indirect criticism of England’s government. Every time he made a statement he always had a back up plan to why it would work. For example, he would always say how Utopians would never need anything because they had an excess of everything. Or that their whole day was filled with things to do so there was no time for any sort of corruption going on. In any society this wouldn’t happen. I guess I was just really frustrated on how he seemed to feel like this fantasy society was so perfect and so perfectly planned, but in reality it would never really work.
A lot of this story seemed to be very ironic. For example, the way Utopians treated gold, pearls, and diamonds. More writes that they use these items to chain up slaves and have no use for money except to pay for mercenaries. We would think of these items as highly valued and something that they would never put on slaves. Shockingly though, More says that when other visitors came to the island wearing all of these things and the people of Utopia mocked them. All of the sudden the visitors started to believe the thinking of the Utopians. In a typical society this wouldn’t have happened, More’s fantasy world is too outlandish.
More also seems to throw in his personal opinions especially when it comes to religion. As a Catholic living in times of religious uncertainty, he speaks of Utopian priests as very high and well-respected individuals. More writes that no other official in Utopia is more honored and that priests are only married to the finest women in Utopia. He also states how the priests are always found during times of war and that the priests have the ability to decrease the amount of bloodshed that occurs during the war. More is indirectly hinting at the fact that religious individuals should be highly valued and what England is trying to do by making its own religion is wrong.
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