“Well, Raphael has taken care of the thieves…”

"If you allow young folks to be abominably brought up and their characters corrupted, little by little, from childhood; and if then you punish them as grownups for committing crime to which their early training has inclined them, what else is this, I ask, but first making them thieves, and then punishing them for it? (532)"

Even those of us who are not well-read have heard this passage quoted among the many medium of society. In Ever After, a movie released in 1998, the main character Danielle de Barbarac frequently quotes Utopia, citing this passage as an argument against the harsh punishment of thieves and blaming society for creating them.

Raphael/More continues by saying:

"It seems to me...that it's altogether unjust to take someone's life for taking money. Nothing in the world that fortune can bestow is equal in value to a human life...as if there were no difference between killing a man and taking a coin from him. (533)"

Not only is he making the argument that society creates the thieves of our time and therefore cannot punish them, but he also brings up the fact that punishing thieves the same as murderers is wrong. To kill a man for trying to feed his family is extreme. He makes an interesting comment that if the punishment for stealing and murder is the same, soon thieves will kill those they take from, thereby eliminating the witness of the crime and not changing their punishment.

Raphael then begins a lengthy explanation of how the Polylerites treat those who steal. The result is a lifetime of servitude (ah, there's that word... read my last post to see what I think!) and therefore an inescapable and extremely long and drawn out punishment.

Not only does this place thieves on a different level from murderers, but I believe it brings up more serious consequences. For those who are constantly in need, execution after a lifetime of thievery and humiliating beggary may seem like an escape. The consequence of lifetime slavery may be less appealing.