At first glance this appears to be a relatively ideal set-up, with individuals sharing the workload and living space so that everyone has enough food and no one is forced to endure hard work in the agriculture sector more than anyone else. According to More, work is shared more or less equally, particularly in regards to working in the country sewing and reaping the island's food, because every year "there are other twenty sent from the Town, that they may learn Country Work, from those that have been already one Year in the Country, which they must teach those that come to them the next Year from the Town" (More 46). Paper NOW! ⬇️ TOPIC: Essay on Thomas More's Utopia as a Criticism of 16th Century England AssignmentThe first area in which More's Utopia seems to critique European society without offering a clear alternative is in the make-up of Utopia's agricultural economy, if one may call it an economy absent any personal property. Thus, as will be seen, Utopia functions not so much to describe an idealized society, but rather to highlight the ills of European society by offering a sometimes fantastical, sometimes realistic depiction of a society that, while markedly different from sixteenth century Europe, nevertheless demonstrates the same degree of positives and negatives present in almost any society. With this in mind, one must attempt to read Utopia not as a piece of fiction intimately related to More's own views, changing and indeterminate as they are, but rather as a kind of public work, intended to instigate discussion and contemplation about the issues discussed within without offering any easy answer. That is to say, however one wants to interpret More's point there is complicating evidence that forces one to reconsider for example, imagining that Utopia represents More's proposal for an ideal society is complicated by the fact that the name means Noplace, and reading it as a criticism of European society forces one to consider the differences between Utopia and More's own views, expressed throughout his lifetime and career. Thomas More's Utopia is particularly interesting piece of satirical literature precisely because it does not offer any easy readings.
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