Raphael Hythloday: Unreliable Narrator for Greater Understanding?

The entire description and interpretation of the island Utopia rests solely on Raphael Hythloday, an experienced sailor who traveled with experienced explorer Amerigo Vespucci on multiple occasions. He is the first (perhaps unwittingly) to circumnavigate the globe, and a sailor who learns from traveling like Ulysses and travels to learn like Plato (10-11). This is certainly all very impressive, and extremely admirable. Certainly, More couldn’t be so lucky to have the Raphael Hythloday tell him about the Utopian island.

That is, until we realize the meaning of his name.

As we learned, his surname Hythloday literally means “nonsense-distributer” or “nonsense-peddler” (7). This, I theorize, tells us all what the Utopian description really is: nonsense. It is awfully convenient that, as Peter Giles admits, “there is no mortal alive today [who] can tell you so much about unknown people and lands” (10). Now, I am not saying (although possible) that Hythloday is fabricating his entire story (for example, he never traveled with Vespucci) but that the specific details of false.

This would certainly explain some rather contradictory and inconceivable notions of the island Utopia to real-life Sir Thomas More. For instance, the fact that lawyers “are excluded entirely” (75) strikes me as extremely odd for More’s vision. More, after all, eventually became the highest and most powerful lawyer in all of England.

Wikipedia.org; "Thomas More"

 “I hate my job.”

Another example involves the unheard of tolerance of religion (except for atheism, which is opening a whole other can of worms). Real-life Thomas More, as Lord Chancellor of England, prosecuted English Protestants under King Henry VIII. Later, in the 1530s, when Henry broke away from the Catholic Church and required all English citizens to recognize the king as Supreme Head of the English Church, More refused, stating that his Catholic faith could not recognize the king as a sort of “new pope.” As a result, More was sentenced to death and was beheaded in 1535.

Here’s the real kicker: the reason that there was religious intolerance in much of human history is the exact same reason that Hythloday says there is religious tolerance in the island Utopia. When a fellow Utopian ignored the law and continued to preach against others, “he was tried on a charge, not of despising their religion, but of creating a public disorder” (85). According to history, if there were a person without your religion preaching against your own faith, then he will endanger the safety of the community and the land.

There are two possibilities here. First, More-the-author may legitimately think lawyers are “a class of men whose trade it is to manipulate cases and multiply quibbles” (75) and that any religious belief (sans atheism) is fine for the communal health of society. Or, as I tend to believe, More-the-author is using satirical language, through the character of “nonsense-peddler,” to show that what he is describing is truly not utopian. After all, wouldn’t you expect Mr. Nonsense-Peddler to fudge the truth, even a little? 

newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com

Now, what of our traveler’s first name? Certainly, the name reminds us of the Archangel Raphael. This name is Hebrew in meaning, translated as “healing of God.” The angel appears in the biblical Book of Tobit as a guide and extraordinary helper to Tobias, Tobit’s son. Click here to read the (very short) Book of Tobit.

How do we reconcile these two names? On the one hand, “Raphael” shows the help and guidance of God, without which Tobias would have failed his mission; on the other hand, “Hythloday” shows nonsense.

I believe that, if we combine “God’s healing” with “nonsense-peddler,” we see that the fictional sailor speaks satirical utopianism so that we may become “enlightened” by what is good for an alternative society and what is not. It is no accident that the only character to have seen the island Utopia – who the reader entirely trusts with accurate descriptions – is named such a way.