stylistic:tone, structural:scholar_edition, information:highlighting, quality:correction
Framework

The story is written from the perspective of More himself. That was common at the time, and More uses his own name and background to create the narrator. The book is written in two parts: "Book one: Dialogue of Council," and "Book two: Discourse on Utopia."

The first book is told from the perspective of More, the narrator, who is introduced by his friend Peter Giles to a fellow traveller named Raphael Hythloday, whose name translates as "expert of nonsense" in Greek. In an amicable dialogue with More and Giles, Hythloday expresses strong criticism of then-modern practices in England and other Catholicism-dominated countries, such as the crime of theft being punishable by death, and the over-willingness of kings to start wars (Getty, 321).

Book two has Hythloday tell his interlocutors about Utopia, where he has lived for five years, with the aim of convincing them about its superior state of affairs. Utopia turns out to share many of the features of (what would come to be called) a socialist state. Interpretations about this important part of the book vary. Gilbert notes that while some experts believe that More supports socialism, others believe that he demonstrates a belief that socialism is impractical. The former would argue that More used book two to show how socialism would work in practice: individual cities are run by privately elected princes and families are made up of ten to sixteen adults living in a single household. It is unknown if More truly believed in socialism, or if he printed Utopia to argue that true socialism was impractical (Gilbert). More printed many writings involving socialism, some seemingly in defense of it and others apparently scathing satires against it. Some scholars believe that More uses the structure to show the perspective of something as an idea against something put into practice. Hythloday describes the city as perfect and ideal, and believes the society thrives and is perfect. As such, he is used to represent the more fanatic socialists and radical reformists of his day. When More arrives he describes the social and cultural norms put into practice, citing a city thriving and idealistic. While some believe that is More's ideal society, some believe the book's title, which translates to "Nowhere" from Greek, is a way to describe that the practices used in Utopia are impractical and could not be used in a modern world successfully (Gilbert). Either way, Utopia has become one of the most talked about works both in defense of socialism and against it.