Chapter Commentary of Utopia - Study Guide by Thomas More

the society is structured to make the job as easy as possible. Women sit on the outside of the dining hall so that "if they suddenly feel sick, as pregnant women often do from time to time, they can get up". We must also recognise however, that More is willing to compromise the family for the good of the city. Households that are too large (over sixteen adults) can be divided and the surplus sent to other households of less than ten adults. Further if a town is too full its population is transferred to another town, and if the island of utopia is overpopulated, some citizens leave to colonise the mainland. People become commodified, quantified, and treated as currency as they are transferred and used to balance numbers:

"if a city has too many people , the extra persons serve to make up the shortage of population in other cities".

Although not as radical as Plato, More appears here to sacrifice the benefits of family structure for that of strong political structure – individual costs for the benefit of the masses.

In Utopia, pride is regarded as a social vice and children are taught this from their youngest age. As Hythloday says, "Men and animals are alike are greedy and rapacious from fear of want. Only human pride glories in surpassing others in conspicuous consumption. For this kind of vice there is no room whatsoever in the Utopian way of life". So More’s utopian discourse is based on a diagnosis of the ills of sixteenth century Christendom: identifying it as pride and prescribing remedies. It defends and advocates the systems of the simple communal living against the growth of modern capitalism and ruthless self- advancing Machiavellianism.

In addition to creating the same conditions for everyone, this assures that they will have ample supplies and suppress the instinct of fear of want. Everyone gets "plenty of everything that’s needed for a comfortable life". Whenever the head of a household wants anything "he just goes to one of these shops and asks for it … He’s allowed to take it away without any sort of payment, either in money or in kind". All Utopians then are equal and even the guardians of the cities, who are exempted from the normal work "go on working voluntarily to set a good example".

Education and Humanism -"In intellectual pursuits they are tireless"

The most efficient way to rid the world of corruption and crime is to emphasise education. According to Marx, education breeds morality and virtue. One of the keys to a communist society is considered to be equal education and so More’s concept of education in the sixteenth century is impressively advanced. Utopia is a nation in which everyone is educated and everyone continues to be educated since "Lunch and supper begin with a piece of improving literature read aloud". People spend their free time learning and public lectures are available every morning. The leaders of Utopia are taken from the intelligentsia, a class who do not work because they study tirelessly. One important aspect of the intelligentsia is then that anyone may join if they work hard enough and prove themselves clever enough. Utopia allows the individual to "cultivate his mind – which they regard as the secret of a happy life". More’s humanism can be displayed on the import placed on education and the Utopians are praised for their aptitude for learning. When Hythloday shows them some of his books,

"They picked up the forms of letters so easily, pronounced the language so aptly, memorised it so quickly, and began to recite so accurately, that it seemed like a miracle"

It is from discussions with Hythloday and their own sharp minds that they are able to master the production of paper and print.

So it is responsiveness that is advocated: "their readiness to learn" from accident, experience and the past. Hardships in Utopia are overcome by creative and learned effort: their not naturally fertile soil or wholesome climate is turned to best use and deficiencies are overcome.

Thus we can align More with the humanist tradition, in other words the drive to imitate the ancients, an affiliation with its rhetorical principles and use and a response to classical authorities with certain