Among the ‘discoveries’ that occurred then was that of the New World by European explorers, and the curiosity concerning these voyages of exploration plus the advent of the printing press meant that ‘printed records of the Renaissance explorations were [soon] everywhere available’, and thus Utopia as ‘a product of this exploratory context’ is ‘undeniable’. This is apparent in that its central character is a sailor and that his impressions of the imaginary island of Utopia constitute most of More’s text, which is a cross between travel narrative and social satire. The above quotation from Utopia depicts the Utopian lifestyle, one that has benefits and drawbacks, and the references to work, corruption, and poverty highlight key aspects of any debate considering whether or not one would like to live in More’s Utopia.
The above extract begins with the lack of distractions that might otherwise keep Utopians from their work, but the use of ‘evading’ and ‘usual’ convey the familiarity and routine that accompanies employment in Utopia. Everyone has a job, which is a comforting thought in light of the levels of unemployment and the resultant poverty existing in sixteenth- and twenty-first- century England. Elsewhere, we learn that Utopians, of both sexes, are guaranteed work that is suited to both ability and interest: ‘of the other foresaid crafts every man learneth one. And the women […] and if any person […] be desirous to learn also another, he […] occupieth whether he will’. However, this employment system is very regimented. Each day begins at four o’clock in the morning and consists of three hours of work, followed by lunch and a two hour break, then another three hours of work, then supper, and then everyone goes to bed at eight o’clock, and ‘eight hours they give to sleep’. In this light the Utopians’ strict workdays seem more like that of prisoners than of citizens of a democratic nation like Utopia purports to be.
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