by Pooka

Created on: May 12, 2008

Ideas of Utopia

The very first literary idea of utopia was invented by Sir Thomas Moore in 1516. Since that time, the idea of what exactly makes a utopia has branched and grown into an uncountable amount of individual definitions. All people are individual with their own personal goals and aspirations; therefore the perfect utopia is largely defined on the individual's own concept of the perfect place of perfect existence. Regardless of the unique personal differences, there are several themes that are largely universal in defining a utopia. Using this themes and personal views; William Morris offers his version of utopia through the eyes of a time traveling Englishman in his book News From Nowhere.

One of the common elements in utopia is the prospect of everlasting life. In News From Nowhere, the people have longevity and youth well beyond what the reader would consider normal years. The protagonist is utterly shocked to discover whom he believed to be a twenty year old, was actually past forty. Life is long but not eternal; still none of the characters seem concerned with death. They all enjoy life so much, that they don't bother putting any thought to the afterlife or the world beyond.

In this future society, all tangible and intangible needs and wants are provided without the need for any strain or effort of note. There seems to be a shift in very human nature (though the denizens of this utopia deny it vehemently) where work is done simply for the desire of creation. It seems a ridiculous thing to these people that there should ever have been a man of any time who did not enjoy honest work for the sake of the work itself. William Guest is astonished more than once that the people would refuse any kind of payment in exchange for a service or object.

Children in this society learn trade by watching and mimicking adults. There are no structured schools, and kids are left to literally run wild in the woods. Book knowledge is almost frowned upon in utopia, the majority thinking it as a ridiculous and frivolous thing for one to waste their time in exercises of the mind when there was so much more good that could come from the strain of the body. Paradoxically it is this love for work to which they attribute their longevity and good health. Stress and exhaustion seem to have disappeared as mysteriously as the giant lizards that roamed the earth before the birth of man.

Many works on Utopia use the theme of complete knowledge, that in a perfect world everything there

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