Utopia 2 - Book Report/Review Example

He held office as Chancellor of Wolsey briefly from 1529 until his resignation in 1532. Despite being remarkably good in his role as resolver of disputes, he resigned in distaste when Henry VIII proclaimed himself as Supreme Head of the Church of England. His respect of the Pope’s authority made him take this step yet caution directed him to state health reasons as the cause for resigning from office. Loyalty to his principles did cost him his life in the end. He was held in the Tower of London for three years before being tried for treason in 1535.

Found guilty as charged, his execution took place on July 6 1535. Pope Pius XI canonized him as a Saint in 1935. Utopia is actually two books in one. The first book is Sir Thomas More’s story of his meeting with an old friend, Peter Giles, on one of his trips. Giles introduced him to another individual. During the conversation, More suggested to this man that he join a King’s counsel. The man, known as Raphael Hythloday, criticized the prevalent legal and political infrastructures of their native countries and stated that his ideas were too weird and twisted to sit well with the King.

He then begins to talk of a place called Utopia. Encouraged to launch into a full story by More, Hythloday describes the religious, social and political system of Utopia. The narrative from here onwards is from his point of view while he talks in detail about this place. His description exhaustively seems to cover everything: the social interactions and relationships of utopians; the cities and the life within; modes of traveling and occupations; and the educational system are all covered. He talks of the utopians’ total lack of greed and their disregard for precious metals and gems, their tolerance of each other and the way they coexist.

According to him, war being abhorrent to utopians, they sent others in their place. He also mentions a great degree of religious tolerance on the island and how all sorts of religious beliefs and codes are accepted. However, in his own words, atheists were not tolerated there as well, since the utopians subscribed to the philosophy that one not believing in the immortality of the human soul and not serving a deity would not adhere to a moral code of conduct, due to no belief in retribution. It is interesting to read this book and see that lawyers were not a popular group even as far back as the 16th century, something I learned from reading the book.

Hythloday, in his narrative mentions rather forcefully Utopia’s utter lack of lawyers and how people defended themselves when faced with a lawsuit. This shows that lawyers were reviled during those times as well – I did not know that people in the 16th century, just like people today, did not like lawyers. Hythloday calls social systems in the modern world ‘conspiracies’ and says that governments and ruling systems are clever plans of the rich to make sure the poor remained poor, their efforts and hard work benefiting those already in power.

He states that the rich put the whole farce into action to protect their illegally amassed wealth and trap the poor in the vicious circle of trying to make ends meet, the legal system only punishing illegal acts and never curtailing them. The language of the book is not what we are used to reading today, as obviously,