War in "Utopia"

Book Review # 112269

English > Analysis
Literature > English

War in "Utopia"

An analysis of the military practices of the Utopians in Thomas More's "Utopia".

1,818 words () | 0 sources | 2009 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how More's character Raphael Hythloday, from his work, "Utopia", views the Utopians as war hating people. It looks at how the Utopians do loathe war; however, they must embark on it to protect themselves and their friends. It also examines how the military exploits of the Utopians are far different from the war practices that we are used to and how they use bribes and bounties to sabotage a country and force it into paranoia.

From the Paper:

"It is a search for justice which gets the Utopians to declare war on another state. Most of the reasons that Hythloday provides for us as to why the Utopians embark on military campaigns have to do with an injustice done to them or a friend. They fight more fiercely when an injustice is done than when an enemy invades or steals their friends' property. They fight for their friends' merchants when they, "in any part of the world have been unjustly accused under some pretext of justice." (105) The Utopians feel that it is a horrible thing when their friends are unjustly cheated out of their money because monetary needs for the merchants whom they deal with is so important that they can not spare to lose one cent unjustly. Not using the same monetary system that the other nations around the world use, the Utopians can clearly see how much money and riches mean to others and thus get angry when their friends are unjustly taxed or are in another way unjustly robbed of what they need. "