the geese he learned about territories and boundaries and learned when to fight and when not to
fight. Arthur’s son and the Orkney boys were thought the old ways that will be the downfall of
Arthur. Still with all the lessons taught by Merlin Arthur was able to create his utopian society.
King Arthur creates the utopian society as he pictured in his mind were the individual, thought,
and love can be free with peace and equality. Arthur society was booming with people who were
free and able to walk around without harm.
Where the black knights had hoved,…now any virgin could circumambulate the whole
country, even with gold and ornaments upon her person, without the least fear of harm…All the
tyrannous giants were dead, all the dangerous dragons had been put out of action.(White 423)
To obtain equality Arthur made the round table so that no one was above the other. “‘There will be a
lot of jealousy,’…’Knights in this order of yours saying that they are the best one, and wanting to sit at
top of the table.’ ‘Then we must have a round table, with no top’”(White 265). After creating the
round table he had knights flocking to his kingdom. In time King Arthur creates his perfect society.
In this society King Arthur makes new ways of teaching to change old ways that caused the past
dystopia.
King Arthur wants his utopia to strive so he tries to teach the new generations of the new ways,
but he has challenge by the Orkney boys who have been thought the old ways. King Arthur wants
to teach the children when they are young so when they get older they are not corrupt. “The most
important thing, will be to catch them young. The old knights, the ones we are fighting against, will
be mostly to old to learn. We must breed up a new generation of chivalry for the future”(White
265). This was Arthur’s goal to achieve that will promise him a perfect society forever. However
this did not happen as King Arthur’s own son along with the Orkney boys corrupts his society.
Dystopia came upon the society that Arthur tries so hard to maintain. All of Arthur’s ideas and
values were at the brink of extinction. King Arthur’s last hopes of his society was to pass his ideas
to a young page named Tom before his death. “You see, the King wanted there to be somebody
left, who would remember their famous idea” (White 636). Tom was told of all the ideas of Arthur’s
utopia and hopes one day that the society once again will strive. In Looking Backward present a
world like no other where there is no chance of corruption as in King Arthur’s society.
Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward, takes a dystopian world and changes it around to the
perfect utopia were no longer exist hunger, war, and hate but instead knowledge, individual, and love
endures. In the world Julian lives in contains war, hunger, crime, and has many disputes. For Julian
never thinks about this distopic world because he and his family are wealthy. West goes to sleep
one day and wakes up in the twentieth-century after being in a suspended trance. Mr. Leete brings
West out of this trance and becomes his guide to utopia. West learns through Mr. Leete about the
past Boston which has change in to the next millennium.
Boston in the twentieth-century takes care of the individuality and allows them to form in their
individual way. This utopian society expects the people to due what best fit them too due and
mature in their own way. “The most delicate possible test is needed here, and so we leave the
question whether a man shall be a brain or hand worker entirely to him to settle”(Bellamy 137). This
shows that society does not push ideas on to the citizens. Citizens are allowed to strive within their
own talents. “Public policy is to encourage all to develop suspected talents”(Bellamy 138). If one
wants to be a writer he or she can be a writer. No one in society will tell or make one due
something against their will other then to participate in society. Each citizen in the new Boston is
taken care of, “The nation guarantees the nurture, education, and comfortable maintenance of every
citizen from the cradle to the grave”(Bellamy 149). The society treats their citizens as equal were no
one gets more than the other.
New Boston is a utopia where the citizens can see themselves as equals whereas in the past old
Boston was filled with unequal social status. Minds of the citizens in New Boston do not know what
is non equal and West questions Mr. Leete. Mr. Leete response is, “It is precisely because we are
all social equals whose equality nothing can compromise”(Bellamy 168). Mr. Leete tells West that
all of the citizens get a year credit of 4 thousand dollars no matter where they work. West asks how
workers are paid the same if one worker produces more than the other. Mr. Leete responds by,
“The right of man to maintenance at the nation’s table depends on the fact that he is a man, and not
on the amount of health and strength he may have, so long as he does his best”(Bellamy 179). The
society sees effort applied by the citizens as equal no matter how smaller or greater.
In new Boston society give everyone equal status and does not divide or split among caste groups
that is displayed in dystopian worlds.
Splitting up groups by castes or social class leads to dystopia and is why it has been removed
in new Boston. “There are no privileged few, no overpaid managerial class, and no sexism or
slavery delegating dreary jobs to women, nonwhites, or an overburdened subclass”(Snodgrass
324). This quotation shows the benefits of not having class and can be seen in true utopian worlds.
Having such classes create dystopia as it did in Brave New World. “It is the worst thing about any
system which divides men, or allows them to be divided, into classes and castes, that it weakens the
sense of a common humanity”(Bellamy 195). In new Boston the people are seen to be more social
due to the fact that they are all equals. As everyone is equal there is no hate between people and
crime has been made to nothing by eliminating money.
Utopia strives to correct what is done wrong from the past so they have taken money that
causes lust, greed and temptations away from the society. New Boston has figured out that
eliminating money will rid their societal problems dealing with crime. “Result from the inequality in
the possessions of individuals; want tempted the poor, lust of greater gains…money was the motive
of all crime, the taproot of a vast poison growth”(Bellamy 225). Without crime new Boston is in
peace and harmony, “As with other utopias, the Boston of A.D. 2000 is a dream world that suffers
no anarchy and subsists in harmony and peace(Snodgrass 325). Knowledge in this world is
available and gladly given.
New Boston maintains utopia by not forcing certain knowledge to the children in schools, but
offers abundance amount of knowledge. Children acquire knowledge in certain areas of professions
and arts. Society gives the young citizens till the age of twenty-one to learn in the area they best
wish. This process is affective because the knowledge is not being force to them that causes them to
take in less. “According to Edith, because of the efficacy of public education in skills and tastes…Art
flourishes. Libraries continue to stock English classic”(Snodgrass 325). In this utopia knowledge is
fluent and the thought of each individual is wanted.
Love prospers in new Boston as it shows Edith expressing herself towards West. After waking
up in new Boston West has been feeling lonely ever since. West has feelings for Edith but does not
tell her for he is shy. Due to freedom of expression in new Boston Edith does not feel shy as she
expresses her love to West. Edith tells West that she would have told him sooner but was afraid to
shock him.
I know girls were expected to hide their feelings in your day, and I was dreadfully afraid of
shocking you. Ah me, how hard it must have been for them to have always had to conceal their
love like a fault. Why did they think it such a shame to love any one till they had been given
permission to fall in love?(Bellamy 293) This shows how the society feels openly about love. New
Boston has no restrictions on love and therefore maintains utopia. With all this great changes that are
made from the past from old Boston to the new Boston can be seen as the journey back to the
garden of Eden; the very first utopia.
In a higher note Bellamy’s Looking Backward, is society that maintains utopia where citizens
are becoming more and more innocent and thus in biblical terms are going back to the Garden of
Eden were violence, greed, and inequality does not exist. As West was in this garden like society he
was force to leave when he went to sleep and dreamed he was in old Boston. While back again in
old Boston West sees true dystopia of corruption, crimes, greed and inequality. West wants to go
back to new Boston; wants to go back to the garden of Eden. When West once again awaken he is
back in the future and is so happy he cries, “I was gasping. The tears were streaming down my face,
and I Quivered in every nerve”(Bellamy 310). At the end of the novel Bellamy puts a picture in the
readers mind were West and Edith represent Adam and Even in the garden of Eden. “Edith. fresh as
the morning, had come into the garden and was gathering flowers. I hastened to descend to her.
Kneeling before her, with my face in the dust, I confessed with tears how little was my worth to
breath the air of this golden century”(Bellamy 311). This shows that new Boston will continue to be
a utopia.
Hubris is excessive pride that the closed minded societies have shown in 1994, Brave New
World, and Fahrenheit 451 where they only see utopia when they take away knowledge,
individuality, and love which in turn causes dystopia. The quest for Utopia was found in all the
novels, but only two made it and the rest became dystopia ironically still believing it was utopia.
When great societies tries to obtain utopia they become blind not seeing that they have caused
dystopia. This is not just seen with utopia as this is true for any great substances such as getting the
American Dream or getting one million dollars. People and societies get wrapped up in trying to
reach too far with their hands and end up losing their bodies. This is why TH. White’s Once and
Future King and Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backwards were able to create their utopian societies.
King Arthur’s society did not eliminate all the things that caused dystopia but mixed them into his
society by the new ways and old ways. In new Boston they achieve their utopia by not just
eliminating but reconstructing their society from the wrongs of the previous society. All the novels
have dreams of utopia and that may be their success or downfall.
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of Science Fiction. New York: Harmony Books, 1977. 124-9.
Bellamy, Edward. Looking Backward. Cambridge: The John Harvard Library, 1970.
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine Books, 1973.
Carey, Gary, ed. Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited. Lincoln: Cliffs Notes,
1965. 6-13
Guinevera, A. “Aldous Huxley, 76-77″ Heaven and Hell: The Utopian Theme in Three Novels.
New York: Continuan, 1988.
Hermon, William and Holman, C. Hugh, eds. A Hand Book to Literature. 5th ed. New York:
McMillan Publishing Company, 1986.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Perennial, 1989.
Orwell, George. 1984. New York: The New American Library, Inc., 1961.
Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. “Dystopia, 179″, “Looking Backward, 323-324″ Encyclopedia of
Utopian Literature. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1995.
White, T.H. The Once and Future King. New York: Ace Books, 1987.