How Does the Film Text Pleasantville Draw on Concepts Explored by Thomas More in Utopia?
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How does the film text Pleasantville draw on concepts explored by Thomas More in Utopia?
The major concept explored by Thomas More in Utopia is the idea of a certain society that is perfect, in which the people within are of ideal perfection. Pleasantville, directed by Gary Ross, has drawn on this concept of ideal perfection, by creating a utopian society of Pleasantville, where everyone and everything is ideally pleasant (as the film’s title implies). An important concept explored in Utopia is that there is a certain place that is perfect, but not the entire world. In Pleasantville, this concept is drawn in a similar manner as Pleasantville is an imaginary isolated place, thus too good to be true. Pleasantville’s approach of depicting a utopian society has been moulded to be relevant to a contemporary audience in a popular culture context. This is done by implementing the ‘ideal society’ seen by the audience at the time. In Utopia, More often refers to political concepts as to why Utopia is so perfect in how to society operates. The political concepts are integrated in Pleasantville by outlining the downturns and side effects of a utopian society.
Thomas More’s portray of Utopia is a place of perfection, where the behaviour of people are perfect and everyone is happy. This is shown in Raphael’s description of Utopia as a place of uniformity where everyone has the same workload, and receives the same amount of rations. More displays Utopia to be perfect in relation to the society at the time. The factors of an ideal society at the time largely deal with starvation, employment, property ownership and crimes. In the text, these factors are outlined as Utopia is expressed as a place where no one is suffering from starvation because everyone is equally employed, property is common and there is little crime, thus no need for capital punishment. Utopia is compared with the European establishments at the time, therefore is seen as perfect compared to the Europeans...
The major concept explored by Thomas More in Utopia is the idea of a certain society that is perfect, in which the people within are of ideal perfection. Pleasantville, directed by Gary Ross, has drawn on this concept of ideal perfection, by creating a utopian society of Pleasantville, where everyone and everything is ideally pleasant (as the film’s title implies). An important concept explored in Utopia is that there is a certain place that is perfect, but not the entire world. In Pleasantville, this concept is drawn in a similar manner as Pleasantville is an imaginary isolated place, thus too good to be true. Pleasantville’s approach of depicting a utopian society has been moulded to be relevant to a contemporary audience in a popular culture context. This is done by implementing the ‘ideal society’ seen by the audience at the time. In Utopia, More often refers to political concepts as to why Utopia is so perfect in how to society operates. The political concepts are integrated in Pleasantville by outlining the downturns and side effects of a utopian society.
Thomas More’s portray of Utopia is a place of perfection, where the behaviour of people are perfect and everyone is happy. This is shown in Raphael’s description of Utopia as a place of uniformity where everyone has the same workload, and receives the same amount of rations. More displays Utopia to be perfect in relation to the society at the time. The factors of an ideal society at the time largely deal with starvation, employment, property ownership and crimes. In the text, these factors are outlined as Utopia is expressed as a place where no one is suffering from starvation because everyone is equally employed, property is common and there is little crime, thus no need for capital punishment. Utopia is compared with the European establishments at the time, therefore is seen as perfect compared to the Europeans...