The satirical representation of Utopia to a great extent serves as a vehicle for criticism of human life and society. Plato’s dialogue The Republic provides an obscure critique of Athenian society through the satirical portrayal of an ideal state. Thomas More’s work of fiction Utopia indirectly comments on the societal failings of Tudor England through the satirical discourse between Raphael and More. Episode “Space Pilot 3000” of Matt Groening’s sitcom Futurama offers a mordant criticism of American society entering the 21st century through the retrofuturistic portrayal of an advanced Utopian future. Thus, the satirical portrayal of Utopia serves as a manifestation of the composer’s concerns regarding human life and society.
Plato, through
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More’s life spanned a tumultuous era under the sovereignty of Henry VIII, in which More’s satirical portrayal of Utopia indirectly critiques Henry’s contribution to the societal failings of England. This is evident in protagonist Raphael’s discourse with More, where he sarcastically comments that “There’s almost no place where you won’t find… Laestrygones and such-like horrors, but wise and well-instructed citizens you’ll scarcely find anywhere.” More uses a hyperbole to satirize the rarity of encountering citizens under adequate rule, serving as an indirect critique of Henry’s ineptitude in leading English society sufficiently. This ineptitude is embodied in the feudalist economic structure of Tudor England, one that More heavily discountenanced as it created an oligarchy, in which peasants suffered a laborious existence as a means of supporting the prodigal lifestyles of affluent nobles. This is illustrated when More emphasizes how this model emboldened England’s pernicious enclosure movement by metaphorically referring to said nobles as “a grim plague to his native land,” who “can merge fields and enclose thousands of acres within a single boundary.” This absurd metaphor creates satire as it ridicules the English aristocracy and aids More in critiquing England’s feudalist economic structure that encouraged the existence of land enclosures that enfeebled the working class. Additionally, as More was a deeply religious man, he was an indefatigable leader of the early Counter Reformation. Ironically, one of the main tenets in his satirical portrayal of Utopia is that of religious toleration, however, the deviation within this doctrine is that of the abnegation of atheistic beliefs. This is illustrated when Raphael states that “[Utopus] solemnly and strictly forbade anyone to… think that the soul dies with the body.” More uses tautology to reflect his own unyielding
In all aspects a utopian society is a society that is place to achieve perfection, and that is the society that both the “Uglies”, by Scott Westfield and “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut, was striving for. In both of these stories, the government had control over the people’s choices, freedoms, and their natural abilities. Yet both government strive for a perfect society, the methods they use to achieve this goal were different from each other.
In the early 16th century, Thomas More wrote a novel about a fictional society in which humanist ideas were dominant. During this time, European noble power was anything but a Humanist utopia. Europe was not only a mess, but a genocidal mess. Between the reigns of the Tudor Dynasty, and eventually under power of Queen Mary I, English citizens lived in constant fear of their religious rights and their lives. On top of the religious civil wars, the Catholic Church and other clergymen were progressively straying from ‘purity ideas’.
Thomas More was born in London, England on February 7 1478 to Sir John and Agnes More. His father, being knighted and a successful lawyer, much was expected of Thomas More at a young age. After primary school More served Archbishop of Canterbury as a household page, a notable job for one so young. With respectable connections and education, More was admitted to Oxford in 1492 and received a general education for two years. After that more began to practice to become a lawyer. At this time More lived near a monastery where he would regularly join the Monks in the spiritual exercises. It was at this point in More’s life where faith became more prominent and strived to join the monks ranks, but decided later to remain a layman. He married Jane Colt in 1505 and they had four children together before Jane’s untimely death. And years later after her death he married also widowed, Alice Middleton. More was an important councilor to King Henry VIII and traveled as a diplomat on the kings behalf. More opposed the Protestant Reformation taking place in England at the time and spoke out against its spread. More also wrote and published his famous novel, Utopia, published in 1516. This novel was greatly acclaimed and portrayed an ide...
More, Sir Thomas. Utopia. 1516. . Norton Anthology of English Literature. 7th ed. 2 vols. New York: Norton, 2000, 1: 1765-1771.
In “A Modest Proposal” several forms of satire are demonstrated throughout the story. Satire is defined as the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose or criticize people’s stupidity or vices. (Google) In "A Modest Proposal" Swift uses parody which is a form of satire. Parody is primarily making fun of something to create a humorous feel for it. In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift uses parody to make fun of the people and children of Ireland, expressing the children as delicious food to be eaten.
An interesting note is how similar their concept of god is to the Christian God. This was likely done by More to establish support for some of the other ideas expressed in Utopia. This motive is reinforced even more because large numbers the utopians converted to Christianity when they learned of it. They were described as intensely interested in Christianity and its tenants. Their system of religion was also very like Christianity. Unfortunately, even Christians that did not follow the smaller traditions of other sects were looked down on in England. This description of their interest in Christianity reveals how much pressure More was in to portray Christianity in a
Mad Magazine, The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live. In our society, satire is among the most prevalent of comedic forms. This was not always true, for before the 18th century, satire was not a fully developed form. Satire, however, rose out of necessity; writers and artists needed a way to ambiguously criticize their governments, their churches, and their aristocrats. By the 18th century, satire was hugely popular. Satire as an art form has its roots in the classics, especially in the Roman Horace's Satires. Satire as it was originally proposed was a form of literature using sarcasm, irony, and wit, to bring about a change in society, but in the eighteenth century Voltaire, Jonathan Swift and William Hogarth expanded satire to include politics, as well as art. The political climate of the time was one of tension. Any criticism of government would bring harsh punishments, sometimes exile or death. In order to voice opinions without fear of punishment, malcontented writers turned to Satire. Voltaire's Candide and Swift's Modest Proposal are two examples of this new genre. By creating a fictional world modeled after the world he hated, Voltaire was able to attack scientists, and theologians with impunity. Jonathan Swift created many fictional worlds in his great work, Gulliver's Travels, where he constantly drew parallels to the English government.
Thomas More was born in London in 1478. He studied at Oxford where he took a profound love of classical literature. In Utopia, More shows his own skills in humanism. In this story, modeled after Plato's Republic, More examines his culture against a hypothetical culture he invents. His Utopia varies greatly from both his society and our society today. Four ways Utopia differs from our society are social system, attitude towards jewelry, marriage customs, and religion.
More’s knowledge of Greek is evident in his choice of title, Utopia, which is Greek for “nowhere”. His humanist education made him familiar with Plato and he used his knowledge in writing Utopia. In the ideal society that More portrays in his work, education is of paramount importance. Like all humanists, More believed education to be the necessary center of a good society. As a Northern humanist, More also believed religion to be the moral center of society. While the citizens of his ideal society hold varied religious beliefs, More underscored his belief that “(if the matter were handled with reason and restraint) the truth of the right doctrine would at last come to light” (More, 1516). This again asserts the Northern humanist belief that, with the proper education, people will reach the right conclusions, especially concerning faith. While More uses his Utopia as a counterpoint to the ills he sees in his own English society, the reader is left with a feeling of ambiguity as to the author’s agreement with all aspects of the ideal society he describes and so must make his own conclusions. Again there is the Northern humanist approach to necessary reform and the ability of man to draw the right conclusions (Rice and Grafton, 1994; Thompson,
In order to maintain a society free of social inequality both authors set up a civilization based on strict societal structure. In More’s Utopia, a system was set up so that all work was completed.
"Book 2: Of Their Traveling of the Utopians." Utopia by Thomas More. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. .
Gulliver’s Travels is a satirical novel about a sailor’s adventures through strange lands; the author of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift, uses these adventures to satirize the English society. The most prevalent satire is used as Gulliver travels through the lands of Lilliput, Brombdinag, and the Houyhnhnms.
To understand the relationship, the two books must be contextualized. An important part of contextualization is to understand the role of Plato in both the period of Humanism and, within that, in the life of Thomas More. On the one hand, More, like many of his counterparts of the period, "had enjoyed good humanist [education] and retained a powerful love of classical literature" (Rice 141). To further complicate matters, though, although he was a politician, he was also a devout Christian who "secretly wore a hairshirt until the day before he died" (Turner/More 14). More specifically, More was a devout Catholic who was executed because he refused to take an oath swearing loyalty to Henry VIII, after the split of the Church of England, over the pope. His religiosity makes some of the differences between the Republic and Utopia more understandable.
Revolutions and civil wars have taken place and totalitarianism has become a fact that can hardly be ignored. Therefore, the modern age has become a time in which more anti-utopias have been envisioned than ever before. A lot of authors have expressed their views on utopia in their novels. Some have done it by creating their own perfect world, while others have chosen a different path. They have been selected to voice their opinions in anti-utopian novels, or dystopia.
Utopia as a text is a clear reflection and representation of More’s passion for ideas and art. Through the character of Raphael, More projects and presents his ideas, concepts and beliefs of politics and society. More’s Utopia aims to create a statement on the operations and effectiveness of the society of England. This text is a general reflection of More’s idea of a perfectly balanced and harmonious society. His ideas and concepts of society somewhat contrast to the rest of 16th century England and indicate a mind that was far ahead of its time. A number of issues and themes are raised throughout the text to which More provides varying views and opinions. These are transmitted and projected through the perspectives of the fictional Raphael, More and Giles.