On a Friday evening, the Little Prince landed on his home planet. Then, he went to his precious rose and related his travel stories to her…

“And I saw so many flowers with different colors on the earth.”

After few forced coughs, the rose responded in jealousy:

“Oh, but were they as beautiful as me?”

“There were many roses just like you; but I learned that you are unique…”

“Then go talk with them. If you are not going to water me with your words, telling me how much you missed me, why did you come here?”

Unfortunately, these happened to be the last words of the rose, as it had not been watered for a while. The death of his rose, his only friend at home, shook the Little Prince from deep within. As his home planet was so small, his tears soon became a lake. He decided to bury his rose near this lake; a lake that sprang from his heart.

At the end of the day, he sat by the lake and watched the sunset. Then he remembered his conversations with the fox. The fox had said that if they became friends, he would cry after the Little Prince departed. But he would stare at the glaring yellow of the wheat fields, for the yellow color there would remind him of his blond friend, the Little Prince.

Taking the fox’s words to heart, the Little Prince also decided to assign things around him meanings that would remind him of his rose. The red color of the sky at sunset became the petals of the rose, the wings of the birds became its leaves. And most importantly, the lake that was formed by his tears became his love for his precious one. So, whenever the Little Prince wanted to remember his rose, he would come to the lake side at sunset, stare at the horizon as the sun embellished the sky with the petals of his rose, and he would add some more tears to his lake of love.

On one of those days, he felt the absence of his rose so strongly that he cried, sobbing deeply “everything comes to an end, just like the sun, just like my rose…” Having said that, a shock wave reverberated in his mind: what about my own end? And, this question brought others, like a chain reaction: Is it possible to know when his life was going to end? What would happen afterwards? What is the meaning of all the manifest beauties if they are destined to perish? What is the wisdom behind love, if it leads to so much destruction in the heart upon separation…?

Then he remembered the two secrets that the fox had shared with him: 1) It is only with the heart that one can see well, for the essential is invisible to the eye, 2) it is the time that you spend with your rose that makes her so important to you. He thought “the essence of my rose cannot be mere soil; the essence of my love cannot be just tears…” So, did this mean that if he wanted to see his rose, he could see her with his heart? Or, was the time he spent with his rose spent in vain, since she had departed without considering the sorrow of the Little Prince?

Days passed with unanswered questions like these. The Little Prince looked at the sheep in the box that the pilot on the earth had drawn. He sighed, and wished that the sheep could get out of its home; the absence of a friend had slowly but surely destroyed him. Seeing that his desire for company was not realized, he slowly lost his hope as well. He was severely aware of his own doom in his soul. But, still in the depths of his heart, one question kept him alive: When he was lost in the desert with the pilot, with no water left, how did they happen to find a water-well exactly when they were most in need of it? Out of the infinite number of ways they could have followed, were they guided by a hidden hand to this particular path that lead to the well?

Whenever the Little Prince thought about this moment, he would feel the warmth of unseen company. Maybe this was something he could see with his heart, but not with his eyes. He wanted to call this essence that he could see with his heart the essence of life. Then, he thought, if the essence of life had not loved him, it would have abandoned him to perish in the desert. “I love you, too” he whispered. Then he continued to talk to the essence of life; maybe it could hear him, and respond to his need. Thus, with this final hope to be delivered from misery, the Little Prince held conversations with the essence of life that he could not see. And he tried to have his conversations always at the same time of the day, as the fox had told him. The more time he spent with the essence of life, the closer he felt towards it, again, just like the fox had told him. He felt that he was making a new friend, finding love again. The feeling of being taken care of was indescribably comforting.

One day, while he was walking by the lakeside, he came to the place where he had buried his rose last year. He started to cry. As the tears dropped on the graveyard, the Little Prince silently pondered “my precious rose; I cannot see you, but I do believe in the essence that my heart feels. It is the time that I spent with you that made you so important to me; true… And it is my entire life that makes me so important to the essence of life. I feel something extraordinary, because, I feel that the essence of life loves me. I am sure it is taking care of you as well, and I feel that I am going to see you again.”

After his last sentence, he felt something inside that he could not put into words; a feeling of serenity mixed with a glimpse of reunion. But how, when, and where? These questions were unanswered. It was as if his mind was imprisoned in a cell, while his heart was rejoicing at the new freedom that it found with the essence of life. Unfortunately, his mind could not keep up with his heart, and he fell asleep from the intense conflict between his heart and mind.

The Little Prince did not go to visit his rose for a long time after that day. One Saturday morning, he woke up as the dawn was embellishing the surface of the lake of love. He went to the lakeside and washed his face with the water of love. Then behold! He saw his rose burgeoning from where he had buried her the previous year.

Life in Utopia

In More’s classless society, everyone does the same work, is equal, has the same rights, and must work at least 6 hours every day at whatever they do best. As Utopia is an agricultural society, all people work the land. This creates the same conditions for everyone and ensures ample supplies to suppress the animal fear of want.

All clothing is plain, simple, and designed for utility and practicality. Finer material would give no better protection from the cold or make people appear better dressed. To prevent ostentation, Utopians exchange homes every 10 years and eat in mess halls. Hereditary distinctions are unknown, for children move from household to household, depending on which skill they want to learn. Since there is little distinction in occupation, dress, lodging, riches, or use of free time, pride is almost non-existent.

Utopia’s collective agriculture displays the division of labor. Everyone learns the rudiments of agriculture to better serve the common good. “No one will have to do this hard work against his will for more than two years, but many of them ask to stay longer because they take a natural delight in farm life.”(1) This ensures Utopia’s food supply and gives everyone access to civilized life. If an excessive surplus is produced, a holiday is declared so that no one works without purpose.

Utopia’s separate groups (e.g., magistrates and the prince, priests and intellectuals) are not a social or economic class. The syphogrants and the prince are elected autocrats. Their power derives from-and can be removed by-the people. Specialists are not isolated, but rather leaders in an institution in which all can participate. Learning is valued and respected as a means of fully developing one’s specific capacities, not as an indication of social standing.

Why Is Utopia Desirable?

One of More’s reasons for suggesting a Utopia was to end exploitation. More was most likely revolted by the luxury of sixteenth-century Europe’s ruling class, which he saw as a result of the peasantry’s impoverishment. If poverty were to be excluded from Utopia, luxury must suffer the same fate. More saw no benefit to the common good if peasant labor benefited only a very small minority.

As a classless society cannot have pride, Utopians consider it a social vice and pass this view on to their children at an early age. As Hythloday says: “Men and animals alike are greedy and rapacious from fear of want. Only human pride glories in surpassing others in conspicuous consumption. For this kind of vice there is no room whatsoever in the Utopian way of life.”(2) Lack of pride rids Utopia of class and potential social discord, for a commonwealth without pride is like a single united family.

An even division of labor and a lack of pride clears the way for life’s pleasures. There can be no better good than striving for the maximum happiness of all, at the least cost or disadvantage to oneself and society. More believes that money, a symbolic capital that people desire, is the problem, and so Utopia has no money or capital. Thus freed from worrying about food, bills, and other necessities, they enjoy such physical pleasures as fine dining, eating, drinking, and merrymaking (though without alcohol). There is music, a pleasure to the mind and body. For similar reasons, each house has a large garden into which much love and leisure time goes. Their desire to have the best garden, the most pleasing sanctuary, is perhaps the only competition among families.

Pride is replaced by spiritual fulfillment. They pursue philosophy and religion in their quest for virtue and contemplation of the truth, respectively. Their society’s primary virtue is natural reason: the reasons for humanity’s creation. For them, living according to nature is to be humanitarian. More mentions this: “As nature bids us mutually to make our lives merry and delightful, so she also bids again and again not to destroy or diminish other people’s pleasure in seeking our own.”(3)

Religion gives great satisfaction to most Utopians. This is unique to More, for neither Plato nor Marx accept religion. Utopia’s king decreed that all citizens should believe in at least two things: the soul’s immortality and the existence of rewards and punishments in the next life. In religion, Utopians find peace and contemplation of the truth. As education is the most efficient way to overcome corruption and crime, it is entrusted to priests. As a result, few laws are needed and existing ones require only the most obvious and easiest interpretation.

Utopia’s government consists of magistrates and a prince who handle the country’s affairs. This does not contradict communism, as government’s sole purpose is to maintain the status quo and prevent idleness. The government is designed in the most responsible way. All matters must be considered for a day and cannot be passed without 3 days of contemplation. It is a capital offense to consult together on public affairs outside the senate or the people’s assembly. Raphael says: “They take care to deliberate wisely rather than speedily … considering the public good.”(4)

Conclusion

More’s Utopia has a major failing: it is static and unchanging, instead of evolving, and allows no place for growth and development. Thus only a miracle or a prince gifted with a measure of divine power could bring it into existence. More understood that his Utopia was not a possible solution, but had no idea of the historical process that might lead to a future socialism.

Utopia is only put forward so that readers will understand that Utopian values are really the fundamental values of human nature, and that the world is imperfect. As Hythloday says at the end: “I must confess that there are many things in the Utopian Commonwealth that I wish rather than expect to see among our citizens.”(5)

More does not call for a revolution, nor is he a leader of the proletariat who wants to overthrow the bourgeoisie. Instead, More is like his Utopians, simply contemplating what would be nice, a daydream maybe. While More’s Utopia anticipates the characteristics of a modern classless society, he proposes no means by which to obtain this blissful paradise.

Footnotes

1. Thomas More, Utopia, ed./trans. H.V.S. Ogden (Illinois: ARM, 1949), 29.
2. Ibid., 38.
3. Ibid., 48.
4. Ibid., 33.
5. Ibid., 83.