Abra Forman
Professor Rodas
Utopian Fiction
Interpersonal Relationships in Utopia
Exposition is a common and important tool often used in utopian fiction, since nothing can be assumed about the world in which the novel takes place. More’s Utopia is pure exposition, giving details about every aspect of Utopian life. However, there are some things that he quite conspicuously leaves out of the text and which further one’s doubt of the viability of a place like Utopia.
One of the most noticeable absences was the lack of detail about interpersonal relationships. When they are mentioned, no personal regard has relevance; interactions between humans are discussed only as they relate to matters of the state or common well-being. As concerned as Utopian citizens are for the “commonwealth” and “public good,” they seem to have little or no regard for familial relations or personal friendships. It seems that the theory of the “common good” is what the Utopians love, and not actually each other, the people that make up the commonwealth. In the sections titled “Social and Business Relations” and “Marriage Customs,” there is little to no reference to personal relationships when families are mentioned. For example, when a household exceeds its quota of adults, it is solved by “transferring individuals from a household with too many into a household with not enough” (41)! When nursing mothers are too sick to breastfeed their infants, they find a suitable nurse and “the child regards its new nurse as its natural mother” (43). If a child discovers that his preferred trade is one practiced by a family not his own, “he is transferred by adoption into a family practicing the trade he prefers” (37). All of these transfers and switches happen, it seems, with no protests from blood relations. Elders have no objection to being injected into a new family, nor do mothers or fathers to giving their children away.
There are also no mentions of the concept of friends. Judging from other hints given by More, however, one assumes that this institution is not as important in Utopian society as it is in our own. There are no taverns or alehouses, which the narrator boasts of as virtue, but that also means that there are no gathering places for people to get together and talk, no time when it’s appropriate to have a chat with a neighbor or form friendships with other adults. Another clue is the fact that when a man wants to “stroll about and explore the extent of his own district” (45), he must obtain the permission of both his father and his wife. While the narrator presents the leisure of these people as productive and leading to visibility and trust, in reality it is very restrictive and forbidding of personal friendships, as it leaves no time and allows no place to form or keep them.
Work Cited
More, Thomas. Utopia.