Finale

We come to our final portion of Sir Thomas More's essay and I can finally say that my thoughts culminate in this manner, that I agreed with little and was perturbed by the rest. Let us begin with that oh so contreversial subject, love.

Concerning Marrige and Love - The Utopians forbid anyone from falling in love before the age of 22 if they are male and 18 if they are girls, anyone who transgresses against this is forbidden to marry. The ages mentioned above are also the set limits for Marrige, no one may marry before he or she reaches the proper age. An even stranger prerequisite for Marrige is that both man and wife must see eachother naked before they can be married.

My thoughts on Marrige and Love - Love cannot be controlled, defined, or explained by Men or Women to other Men and Women; it can come at anytime and for anyone; forbidding love is impossible because it is a concept used to describe an emotion that people feel when an attraction to another is sparked. You cannot "outlaw" love until a certain age. As for Marrige I think that it is indeed proper to set age limits but I would feel better if they were just a little bit closer together; four years doesn't seem like much but considering the amount of maturing that happens in those four years I would say that maybe 20 and 22 would be more suitable. In response to the requirement that you have to see your partner naked I have always been a firm believer that if you are in a relationship in which you are committed body and soul to another then intercourse and sexual interactions should be permissable and not condemded. A huge part of Marrige is sex and if you don't know your partner's sexual habits or how they handle it then you have just one more obstacle to overcome. So being naked before you get married isn't so strange a requirement after all I guess.

Concerning divorce - Anyone who is at fault is stripped of their freedom and forced into slavery while the party without guilt is allowed to remarry.

My thoughts on divorce - Slavery is wrong in any shape and form and should never be a punishment. It would be better to put them in the service of the wronged party, like an indentured servant, to serve a specific sentance yet still be paid and allow to live in their own home and still not be allowed to remarry. The same should go for the person they cheated with.

Concerning Lawyers - They are all deceitful and cannot be trusted and so no man may be a lawyer in Utopia.

My thoughts - My uncle is a lawyer and one of the most honest people I know. If you take away the lawyers and have people represent themselves then you must bear with the fact that not everyone will have the same knowledge of the law and that could be a disadvantage for people that have been wronged. However, if crime doesn't occur often there is little need for the courts and so the occasional court case would be inconsequential.

Concerning War - The Utopias share a common disdain for war and all things connected with it and in all their actions they do all they can to avoid engaging themselves in war having constructed their society in such a way that conflict can be negated and greed for more territory is discouraged and frowned upon so people do not desire more and there is no need for large armies to aquire new territory. However all the citizenry are trained in the art of war in case of such an occurence.

My thoughts - this is the most ironic part of all; Utopia doesn't have war; yet everyone is trained in how to fight...why? Their island is a virtual fortress, impenetrable by land or sea and the technology for air battle is still centuries away; why would you need to keep your people armed and ready for battles that are never going to come? I didn't know what to make of it except to assume that perhaps Utopia isn't as impregnable as we are led to believe and that in the slight chance an invasion even got to the island the Utopian's would be ready to handle it. It was still odd though.

Concerning religion - The citizens of Utopia are allowed to follow any religion that they choose too and no one religion of the state is forced upon them.

My thoughts - This was perhaps my favorite part; I have alwasy believed in the freedom of choice when it comes to religion; it's worked well enough in the good old USA.

Concerning death - The people can choose to either be sad for the dead or joyful that they have moved on.

My thoughts - I thought this section rather boring. I didn't feel as if it described anything worth talking about; how people greive is akin to how they love; we all do it in different manners; there really isn't any need to try and catagorize how it's done.