Utopia - The Impossibility of Perfection"The last end of [this] Commonwealth forgets the beginning." ?William Shakespeare, The TempestFrom Plato's Republic to Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, the search for a perfect social state has never ceased; its ultimate goal, namely to achieve a human society which exists in absolute harmony with all necessary social justice, has, however, proved terribly elusive. The pure concept of a utopia can be theoretically visualized as a perfect geometric circle: a homogeneous, global circle, but impossible to draw in reality. In 1516, Sir Thomas More depicted in his famous Utopia what he envisioned as a geometric circle. an ideal state – one that frees its citizens from material concerns by demanding economic equality among them and distributing social responsibilities impartially. More's work, brilliant as it is, cannot mask the serious fallibilities and troublesome limitations of utopian thoughts; and being the ambivalent creator that he was, More consciously emphasized the paradoxical nature of his ideal society. A century later, in his final work The Tempest, the great playwright William Shakespeare presented his audiences with a mystical Commonwealth that is a reflection of the golden age of classical literature. This fantasy, wrapped in the greatest fantasy yet that is The Tempest, will return the human race to the purest state of nature. The Tempest, on the other hand, can be interpreted as a critique of the utopian state. If apparent paradise can only be maintained through magic and the deconstruction of human civilization, Shakespeare seems to imply, then utopia is entirely unattainable and impractical. There is no doubt that Sir Thomas More's Utopia is a work of ...... middle of paper ......aults. Utopian philosophy fails because it refuses to address the darker side of the fundamental principles of human nature, foremost among which are greed and wickedness. We must not forget that human ills give rise to oppressive systems, and not the other way around. By revolutionizing the societal system into a so-called just form, one does not redeem or remedy the intrinsic moral failings of its citizens. Utopian philosophy remains, after all its research, a hollow icon on the altar of aspiration. Works CitedMore, Thomas. Utopia. Robert M. Adams. New York: WW Norton, 1992. Nietzsche, Fredrich. “Morality as fossilized violence”. The Prince. Robert M. Adams. New York: WW Norton, 1992. Ovid. “The Golden Age”. Utopia. Robert M. Adams. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992. Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Stanley Wells. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.