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Individuality in the Utopian Genre

More specifically, as seen in Thomas More’s Utopia

Individuality is messy, often a waste of time, but more than either it is

human. More useful to a community than the individual, is a robotic hard

working person of altruism. More’s Utopia assumes a citizenry of hard working

altruists. Not burdened by the human flaws of pride and self-interest, the

altruists live near to perfection. The utopian genre and more specifically Utopia

by Thomas More comment on individuality. In this paper, I explore how

extinguishing individuality is critical to the success of the communities we find in

these narratives. I also consider how unrealistic it is to extinguish a core human

trait, i.e. individuality and/or its manifestations, i.e. pride and/or self-interest.

Reading Utopia, one might wonder if More believed in his society. The

idea of a perfect, stable community of people that work together for a common

benefit is naturally appealing. More does not explicitly denounce or espouse his

society.

…perhaps More’s Utopia is the most uniformly readable if one

recognizes the deliberately ambiguous position More adopts for

effectively concealing his own opinions: sometimes using

Hythloday to put forward his point of view, sometimes advancing it

in his own person as a participant in the dialogue. (Sullivan 42)

Although More does hint at thinking that the pursuit of such a society is

outside the natural limits of man. Pride may be a symptom of individuality. What

a person considers a healthy amount of pride, for themselves or for others, is a

debatable and personal matter. What is not debatable is that More believes

pride is what prevents man from creating the kind of society we find in book two
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of Utopia.

And in fact I have no doubt that every man’s perception of where

his true interest lies, along with the authority of Chist our Savior

(whose wisdom could not fail to recognize the best, and whose

goodness would not fail to counsel it), would long ago have

brought the whole world to adopt Utopian laws, if it were not for

one single monster, the prime plague and begetter of all others-I

mean Pride. Pride measures her advantages not by what she has

but by what others lack. (More 644)

More also takes high-brow jabs at the plausibility of his society by naming

the island “Utopia” (Greek translation is “no place”), naming the river Anyder

(Greek translation is “no water”), and naming the capital Ameurot (Greek

translation is “phantom”).

So, if pride and therefor individuality make his society impossible, why

create it outside of amusement? Sullivan poses an opinion I half agree with:

Utopia was an amiable condemnation of the Christian nations of

the sixteenth century, particularly England. (Sullivan 40)

I agree with Sullivan that Utopia is a critique, but might Utopia also be a

plea for reform, a gold standard towards which the nations of Europe can strive

to become? If the pagans of Utopia can be this perfect, then surely the grand

Christian nations of Europe could at least be better than they are.

In Voltaire’s Candide, the hero, Candide, and his trusted friend,

Cacambo, visit a utopian society, the famed Eldorado. In Eldorado, the people

are prosperous and live in perfect harmony. Like the children of More’s Utopia,
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the Children of Voltaire’s Eldorado play with gold and gems, but once they

mature, the “toys” lose their appeal. Both people’s have a disdain for

materialism and private property. Eldorado is similar to the island of Utopia in

the sense that everyone works together, and everyone is cared for, but it is very

different from the island of Utopia in the sense that it is hidden from the rest of

the world. Eldorado has no international relations outside of the occasional

Peruvian voyager that accidentally stumbles in.

So, Candide and Cacambo have found it. They’ve stumbled upon the

best place on earth. They live happily ever after right? Wrong. They leave.

It is true, my friend, and I’ll say it again: the castle where I was born

cannot compare with where we are now; on the other hand

Madamoiselle Cunegonde is not here, and doubtless you too have

a mistress somewhere in Europe. If we remain here, we shall be

just like everyone else; but if we return to the old world with only a

dozen sheep loaded with Eldoradean pebbles, we shall be richer

than all the kings put together, we shall no longer have inquisitors

to fear, and we shall easily rescue Cunegonde. (Voltaire as

Candide 49)

Voltaire is an interesting scholar. In Candide he draws conclusions and

declares his opinions by subjecting his characters to situations and then uses the

reactions of his characters to voice his opinion to the reader. So, what is

Candide’s reaction to discovering Eldorado telling us? Scholar, Michael Wood,

has an opinion I agree with:

…Candide decides the place is not for him because Cunegonde is

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not there and also because he doesn’t want to be like everyone

else… the two are right to leave, happiness isn’t everything, and a

full life must include risk and adventure, and even a bit of

pettiness. (Wood 10)

Wood, like myself, and possibly even Thomas More, believes that it’s

unnatural to not aspire to be an individual. Risk, adventure, and pettiness are

individualistic pursuits, often motivated by pride and/or self-interest. The

human’s natural craving for the byproducts of individualism listed above are a

significant reason why More’s society is unattainable. Risk, adventure, and

pettiness are non-existent in More’s Utopia outside of the explicitly controlled

realm of warfare.

Scholar, Clarence Miller, makes similar arguments concerning individuality

and the plausibility of More’s society.

The institutions of the Utopians clearly cannot work unless pride is

eliminated. And how is pride eliminated? By the institutions,

especially the abolition of private property. The institutions cannot

be introduced unless they have already been introduced.

(Miller 15)

And, akin to Candide, Miller wonders:

Even if we thought it might work in Western nations, would we

want to live in such a faceless and regimented society? The citizens

sometimes seem like robots; the houses and even the cities seem

almost interchangeable. Apart from Utopus, we never learn the

name of a single Utopian. (Miller 8)

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The concept of individuality was not at the forefront of my reading of

Utopia until I read the essay Place in No Place by E. D. S. Sullivan. Sullivan

discusses the role of individuality in More’s Utopia, Skinners Walden Two,

Huxley’s Brave New World, and Orwell’s 1984. At the core of the two utopias

and two dystopias listed above, there is an interchangeability of uniform worker-

bee-esque humans.

…all the utopian examples of society’s aspiration for what could or

should be are predicated on a concept of order which derivers

from function: the performance of certain work; the knowing and

doing of one’s job. (Sullivan 30)

What’s interesting is that Sullivan goes on to explore the use of work by

the state. He draws conclusions concerning Utopia and other narratives of the

utopian genre by comparing and contrasting similar elements, e.g. the function

of work in their societies. The states in Brave New World and 1984 seem to use

work to discourage individuality. If the states keep their populaces hard at work,

the people won’t raise their heads to consider individuality. In Utopia and

Walden Two, the state trusts their populace to inhumanely resist individuality.

Although, the state in Utopia does help its populace to resist individuality by

emphasizing a “public only” society, e.g. the houses don’t have lockable doors.

The Utopian citizen is never individualistically barricaded from society. The

citizen is always a part of the whole.

CC.S.Lewis has pointed out that ‘It is not love of liberty that makes

men write Utopias’ of either kind. An ideally ordered society is

possible only through the curtailment of freedom, both personal

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and collective. In such a society one will have a defined place and

will fulfill a specific function. (Sullivan 48)

The lack of individuality and its associated humanity are what make the

narratives of the utopian genre, and more specifically Thomas More’s Utopia,

works of fiction.

Michael Simpson
November 2013

Bibliography

Miller, Clarence. Introduction. Utopia. By Thomas More. USA: Sheridan, 2001. 7-

23. Print.

More, Thomas. "Utopia." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. W.W.

Norton and Company, 2012. 572-645. Print.

Sullivan. "Place in No Place." The Utopian Vision. Ed. Sullivan. San Diego: San

Diego State University Press, 29-49. Print.

Voltaire. Candide. New York: Penguin, 2005. Print.

Wood, Michael. Introduction. Candide. By Voltaire. New York: penguin, 2005.

11-27. Print.