Utopia

5 Pages 1148 Words

1) What Kind of government does Sir Thomas More describe in Utopia?

In Sir Thomas More’s Utopia he describes a government in which everything is so ideal. In a meeting with Peter Giles and a fictional character Raphael Hythloday (which he made up in order to tell his story), he describes the wonderful government of Utopia. He introduces the geographical feature of the Utopian Island, the country life, and the cities. The population control, markets, economy, slavery and religion are also acknowledged. Even though he has little hope of seeing many, though not all, his practices adopted in Europe, he whishes to see some go to use.
The Utopian Island as describe by Raphael Hythloday in the introduction to Book II in Utopia, is approximately two hundred miles by 5 hundred miles, and is crescent shaped. An eleven mile harbor which broad from the crescent is form, however the entrance is dangerous to approach, thus it makes it easy to defend. Originally this land was connected to the mainland, however an early ruler had a 15-mile channel dug to create the Island Kingdom of Utopia. In Utopia there are about 54 cities distributed over the island at fairly regular intervals, about 24 miles apart and of approximately equal plan and population. The capital city, Amaurot, is located in the center of the island. This is where the center of Utopia is located.
The country life in Utopia was basically farmhouses providing for agricultural communities, called “families”; they included some forty men and women plus two slaves. Thirty such families are presided over by a magistrate. In this society where every one is suppose to be perfect, there is an interesting way for giving variety to occupational activities such as jobs. Most people, after spending two years working in the country are transferred to the city for the next two years, however the shifts are only made so that only half the farm family is moved in a given year....