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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page essay that focuses on the First Book of More's Utopia and the criticisms that More makes of English society during this era. The writer shows that More particularly objected to the use of capital punishment for theft and the enclosure of public lands. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khmocrit.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
Antwerp. While not occupied with official duties, More recounts that he likes to visit with his friend Peter Giles. Through Giles, More meets Raphael Hythloday, the man who tells More
about the island nation of Utopia, which has the most perfect society of any that Hythloday has encountered in his extensive travels. Impressed with Hythloday, Giles and More argue that
he would make the ideal counselor to a king, but Hythloday objects and underscores his objection by describing a dinner that he once attended with Cardinal Morton and others in
England. By describing the dinner conversation, More, as author, offers a critique of English public policy. First of all, Hythloday describes how a lawyer argues in favor of the
public policy of execution for the crime of theft. Considering the severity of the punishment, the lawyer is amazed that so many people continue to steal, observing that he once
saw "twenty hanged together upon one gallows" (First Book, "...concerning the best state of the commonwealth," paragraph 19)(All subsequent citations are from this section and will simply indicate paragraph #.)
Hythloday then observes that the situation makes perfect sense and is due to the fact that the severity of the punishment for theft far exceeds the limits of justice.
"For it is too extreme and cruel a punishment for theft, and yet not sufficient to refrain men from theft," because there is no punishment so terrible that it can
keep people from stealing when they are hungry and have "no other craft, whereby to get their living" (19). Hythloday proposes that it would be a much better policy to
make sure that the populace has enough to eat. The lawyer responds by saying that this is already the case, that is, that people can either choose to work
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