Cardinal Morton needs to be understood as a fictional person in Thomas More’s book but also as a real person and in that functioned as the mentor of the young Thomas More. Within the first dialogue between More, Giles and Hythloday is set a second one – a reported dialogue – Raphael’s description of a debate which takes place at Cardinal Morton ’s table after dinner. Book I ends with the three men having discussed contemporary problems and agreeing to break for lunch before starting to talk about the “ideal” society of Utopia in more detail. Very concrete descriptions of the isle of Utopia on the other hand are found in Book II. Those illnesses are the major topic of Book I. In some points the conversation becomes controversial, especially when talking about contemporary illnesses affecting Europe.
The dialogue often becomes a monologue with Hythloday speaking and More and Giles listening. There they speak about Hythloday’s travels which he had undertook with the noted explorer Amerigo Vespucci.
In the comprehensive dialogue Thomas More, Raphael Hythloday and Peter Giles retire to Gile’s house in Antwerp for supper and conversation. It is based on two major dialogues, one framing dialogue and another within this framework. It is quasi a preface written after the main part of the work and building a contrast of contemporary European society with its social ills on the one hand and the ideal world of Utopia on the other hand. 2) The composition of Book Iīook I of Thomas More’s Utopia was written after the author had already completed Book II. These different images – I would like to call them pieces of a puzzle – form a general impression (a puzzle so to say) which the reader gets about the contemporary state of Europe if he puts the pieces together. It focuses on the following major points of criticism: European monarchs, an adequate from of punishment (especially for theft), the important enclosure movement and the role of private property in a society. It deals with the political and social injustices in England and Europe as they are being characterized in the first Book of More’s Utopia. From that point on literary works which described an invented, positive society where named Utopias.Ĭhapter two is giving a short overview of the composition of Book I. It needs to be answered, what role the transition time of early 16th century played for the author to write such a book which founded a new genre of literature: The Utopia. It is not possible to do so without taking into account the time of publication. The question that rises is, what major points of life in Europe in the beginning of the 16th century are being criticised. This paper is supposed to analyse the picture of England and Europe as it is drawn in Book I.
Book II will to a certain extend be neglected in this paper since its focus will be laid on Book I. Book I on the other hand focuses on injustices in England (Thomas More’s home country) and old Europe. Book II describes in detail the life of the Utopians and the condition of their commonwealth.
Utopia, which can not be seen as a novel since there is no continuous plot or storytelling, describes an ideal society on the isle of Utopia which is situated far away from old Europe in the New World. Later the book was translated into English by Ralph Robinson who published his translation in 1551. Hence the original title of the work was “De optimo reipublicae statu deque nova insula Utopia”. As language More chose the 16th century lingua franca Latin which was the standard - especially in humanist circles. It became immensely influential for forthcoming literature. The humanist and philosopher Thomas More wrote his famous Utopia in 1516. 3) Social and Political Injustices in England and Europe as described in Book Iģ.3 The enclosures in Europe as cause for human povertyģ.4 Europe and the question of Private Property
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