Hannah Wells

July 5, 2013

Inside Utopia: Language and Context Study

          Dystopian literature has the run of high schools currently, but utopian works could stand a chance if presented the right way. Utopian literature has very identifiable conventions that make for easy analysis. These pieces also lead to very interesting discussion about societal rules and beliefs. This is not the limit of utopian literature, however. If I were to teach utopias, it would be because they are also studies in literary language and history. The study of utopian works often leads to discussion of society, but the texts are not without moments of literary strength and beauty.

 Sir Thomas More’s Utopia isn’t without moments of beautiful language, but the best part of the piece comes at the end when More strongly identifies the issue most responsible for destroying a chance at utopia. In the past, I taught rhetoric to high school juniors and I think this particular passage would be great for analysis. The passage comes at the end of Utopia after Raphael’s long description of the supposedly perfect place. Leading up to it is a point that took me by surprise. In paragraph seventy-four from book two, More, through Raphael, points out that the rich tend to be people who contribute nothing to society. On the other hand, the poor are workers like “a carter, a smith or a ploughman” who work “harder than the beasts themselves” for the common good. I found this point to be extremely relevant and one of the most clearly stated ideas in the piece. The next paragraph is marked by a transitional “Therefore,” which indicates the turn in More’s tone. Raphael goes on to say that all governments that he is aware of, besides Utopia of course, are “a conspiracy of the rich” whose wealth was “ill-acquired” (More 1). If I were studying this excerpt with students, I would make sure they noticed the strong language such as “conspiracy,” “danger,” “oppress,” “toil,” and “mischief” that More includes to make his point about the unlikelihood of a utopian society. Although the entire piece is too much for a high school class, excerpts like paragraphs seventy-four and seventy-six allow for the study of strong rhetoric in a utopian piece.   

          On the other hand, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland is more of a study in the language of beauty. If it weren’t for the beautiful moments, Herland would read more like a sociological study than a novel. Herland is clearly a utopian novel, but most of the entertaining sections read more like a Romance. This is a valuable point to make when teaching Herland, since then students can look for the conventions of other genres throughout. For example, without the relationships between the men and women, particularly Van and Ellador, the novel would lose the balance between educating and entertaining. Some of the most beautiful language occurs when Gilman breaks from the sociology lesson and develops Van and Ellador’s relationship. Van says of his love for Ellador, “It was a sense of home; of being clean and rested; of safety and yet freedom; of love that was always there, warm like sunshine” (Gilman 120). The language here is simple, straightforward and as lovely as any poem. Secondly, the beauty of the gardens and trees, as described by the narrator Van, sounds like Romanticism and breaks the tract-like explanations of the society. The gardens are “fruitful and fragrant,” illuminated, “beautiful,” productive, “gorgeous,” “pleasant” and many more lovely adjectives (Gilman 25, 38, 47, 49, 77, 81). If utopia is a land of gardens, then Herland is surely that perfect world. Excerpts from Herland, if not the entire novel, could be taught to an advanced high school class and would be a valuable study of language inspired from other genres.   

          A second way to justify the teaching of famous utopian works is through the study of historical context. Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia in 16^th century England, where life was difficult and society often in upheaval. Sections of Utopia would be helpful in a high school Brit Lit class as we try to show the students what life was like in the 16^th century. More’s text may paint the picture of a utopia, but at its base, the work is a satire through which students can investigate the society of the time. Citizens of Utopia were not greedy, slothful or warlike. They did not gamble or waste time on games. More importantly, Utopians were spiritual and accepting of others beliefs and practices. As a teacher, I wanted my students to understand the every day lives of people from the past and More’s Utopia, through satirical critique, shows us the common man. Further, More’s obvious reproach of the king and other princes displays the shortcomings of the 16^th century government. More’s Utopian prince was peaceful and did not covet the lands of other countries. More was a very important advisor to King Henry VIII and Utopia seems to be a message for him. Utopia is a great example of objective 3C as it exposes problems with More’s society, making it useful for teaching historical and cultural objectives in literature.

          As with Utopia, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland provides a chance to work through objective 3 and study the historical context of the novel. Gilman wrote during the Progressive Era of the United States, which is an interesting and often overlooked era occurring before the Roaring Twenties. In Herland’s utopia, women had the ultimate freedom in education, employment, politics and their bodies. Outside of the novel, Gilman’s U.S. denied women the vote and maintained that women belonged in the home. Earlier in the semester, I researched women’s reproductive health in Gilman’s era and found it to be seriously lacking. Margaret Sanger, a pioneer of women’s health, got the ball rolling in the Progressive Era, but it would be years before her efforts in New York influenced the rest of the nation. Women’s health is only one social institution that Gilman is commenting on in Herland. Students could easily research issues with education, economics, housing and several other social structures made better in the novel.

          Despite the dystopian leanings and even atmosphere found in most high schools, classes might include certain literary utopias (even only as excerpts). Utopia may seem out of reach at first glance, but really works like Utopia and Herland are fictional fixes for the issues of the real world. They are valuable studies in language and social history that might answer the question, what do people really want?

Works Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland. New York: Dover Publications Inc, 1998. Kindle file.  

More, Thomas. Utopia. Online Texts for Craig White's Literature Courses. 1 July, 2013.