Question- What impact does Thomas More's Utopia have on the Renaissance?

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Write a note on Thomas More's Utopia Humanism in the Renaissance.
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Utopia, the ideal modern commonwealth but with Ancient influences. Discuss it.

Answer -

The "Middle Ages" were followed by the renaissance, a time in which art and literature flourished. Thomas More; the first English humanist of the renaissance, was born in London during this period. More's style is simple because of its colloquial language but a deeper look into his Irony hints at deep dissatisfaction with the current thought and desire for change. "Utopia" (which means in Greek 'nowhere') is the name of the More's fictional island of perfected society.

Thomas More's "Utopia" was the first literary work in which the ideas of communism appeared and was highly esteemed by all the humanists of Europe in More's time. More uses the main character, Hythlodaeus as a fictional font to express his own feelings, he may have feared to express in non-fiction because of his close ties with the King Henry VIII.

Thomas More's Utopia is in many respects a typical product of Renaissance humanism. Infact, It is published in the 16th Century. It provides a later example and certainly one much more likely to have been influenced by the half century of Italian and Northern European humanism which predates it.

Utopia bears all the signs of a humanist interest in the classical languages and forms and like 'Erasmus' The Praise of Folly and Valla's On the True and False Good was preoccupied with ancient philosophical views on ethical values.

The Renaissance effect on humanism in More's Utopia fiction is, and has always been a mirror for the real like. Therefore, during the later middle ages from 1300 to 1500 AD, the rise of humanism specially in the book of Utopia. Thomas More is humanist. Thomas More through his book shows the readers a multitude of example of humanism throughout his civilization. Thomas More is a humanist through the ideas on luxury clothing, the economy, and slavery that were also large topics of debate during his time period.

Utopia, the ideal modern commonwealth but with ancient influences, had its origins in two classical works, Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics. Both Erasmus and More were admires of the Greek satirist Lucian and in its introductory sections Utopia is loaded with the kind of satire, irony.

In this respect More could be said to be like Bruni, who believed the application of ancient political ideas would create the ideal state. Utopia is in many respects a hybrid of humanist thought. It is both a pithy, satirical but ultimately serious hypothesis of an ideal commonwealth, broached in classical language and form and also a disguised critique of the social inequalities of 16th century Europe. As a humanist he framed Utopia as the philosophers examples of what is good for mankind but as a realist he knew that it would take more than classical ethics, humanism and for that matter religion to change his own society.

It is no accident that Raphael Hythloday, an "angelic fool" is the narrator of Utopia and that the character, More is the dubious recipient of his tales of Utopia. Perhaps both characters represented the real Thomas More, a humanist idealist and sceptical realist.

Another fact of the Renaissance humanist values includes the importance of reason and intellectual exploration. More clearly asserts the significance of reason when describing the religions of Utopia. In Utopia each religion is fundamentally the same each guided of nature is the true way of worshipping God, according to the UtopiAnswer - 

This is consistent with the humanist theory of a higher, absolute natural law created by God and thus must be followed by man. More's pious Christian background seems to oppose the pagan ideas found in Utopia and the humanistic view of natural law in general. More attempts to combine the ideas of Christianity and humanism, thus lending to his association as a Christian humanist. More again tries to unite two apparently incompatible principles liberalism and communism.Utopia is a well thought examination of More's humanist theories and beliefs which consequently allows him to mix liberalism and communism, humanism and Christianity.

Thomas More's detailed and thoughtful creation of Utopia truly serves as an example of the perfect state. The presence of his own humanist ideas, including the variability of human nature and the importance of reason suggest that Utopia is a translation of his own beliefs, while inclusion of satire and contradiction distinctly marks Utopia as unattainable, yet noble and beneficial goal that society should strive to work towards.

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