Extended Essay

How do Bacon in A New Atlantis and Orwell in 1984

portray good in society differently?
Student N
Supervisor: Mr. Joseph De Santo

I.

Introduction
Utopian fiction traces the path of goodness in humanity wherein the evils and

shortcomings of today have successfully been purged and a perfect society is created.
Conversely, dystopian literature traces a path wherein humanity fails to pursue goodness and
instead presents a vision of the future society wherein todays ills are exaggerated. Anatole
France is quoted in Definition and Purpose of Utopian literature( Hedebrand): Without the
Utopians of other times, men would still live in caves, miserable and naked. It was Utopians
who traced the lines of the first City Out of generous dreams come beneficial realities. Utopia
is the principle of progress and the essay into a better future.
Sir Francis Bacons A New Atlantis outlines a vision of an isolated island nation where
humanity, compassion and science create a virtuous and advanced society that stood above the
rest of the world in Bacons time. George Orwells 1984 is a dystopian literature that outlines the
perils of communism, and the means by which the public is controlled by political parties.
These two texts present two different versions of the best and the worst of society. They were
written at different points of time, by people with different sets of values. It will come to no
surprise that the two visions of the future as presented by Bacon and Orwell value different
ideals.
Francis Bacons New Atlantis is one of the early modern utopian writings written in 1627.
According to Gregory Eck, it follows the general formula for perfect societies following Thomas
Mores Utopia in 1516. Eck also follows that since then, the world has changed and war and new
politics began to arise and new prefixes for utopia begin to evolve, most popularly being
dystopian literature that rose in the 20th century. By picking a classic perfect utopia and an
iconic anti-utopia in 1984, we can really dissect the true purpose of the utopian novel while
examining the different ways good is presented and championed by these authors.
The question then becomes, how do Bacon in A New Atlantis and Orwell in 1984
portray good in society differently? The primary purpose of this essay is to answer this
question. If, as France has said, utopian speculative literature propels change in society, it
becomes pertinent to examine the ways in which authors as individuals use language to shape
the future and forward their ideas. Awareness of the tools that writers use to affect their readers

allow the audience to be more conscious of the real value of the ideas presented in the texts, as
opposed to simply being dazzled by the exaggerations of the utopian vision. Inversely, the
differences in the two dissimilar texts might allow us to trace the differences in the values of the
authors to how the time and place of the origin of the text might have shaped the authors
portrayal of good. Ultimately, the examination of the two texts and the comparison and the
contrast of their separate definitions of social good will contribute to an understanding of how
society shapes the ideal society in literature and how, in turn, literature aspires to affect change
in society.
While this essay is limited to an examination of two texts, it hopes that in answering the
question on how the two texts tackle the definition of good in society differently offer some
insight on the effect and purpose of speculative utopian literature on society. The answer to the
question on the different approaches of Bacon and Orwell lie not only on the texts but also in
connection with the authors, their time, their place and other writings concerning these
particular texts as well as utopian writing in general.
II.

Methodology
A literary analysis consists of analyzing literary components of one or more texts and

evaluating the effects that they have on the reader. An analysis and comparison of the literary
components that the two authors have chosen to employ in their works might shed light on the
different intentions of the authors and different effects that these two different utopian texts had
on their respective audiences. Theoretical works on utopian fiction will help the analysis of the
particular works as it gives us a better understanding to the aim, the origins and the purpose of
the subgenre as a whole. Essay on and by the two authors will help us place the text in a
historical context. An understanding of the historical context might help us better understand
the audience that the author is writing for. Throughout the essay we will examine not only the
text themselves but also the genre to which they belong and the historical context from which
they emerged. From this, a conclusion might be drawn regarding the different portrayals of
social good in the respective works and insight regarding the ways that literature defines and
forwards ideas of good might be gained.

III.

Working Bibliography

Bacon, Francis. "A New Atlantis." Three Early Modern Utopias: Utopia ; New Atlantis ; The Isle of
Pines. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999. N. pag. Print.
Eck, Gregory. "Utopian Literature: A Guide." Utopian Literature: A Guide. The Citadel Faculty,
n.d. Web. 06 Aug. 2013.
Hedebrand, Nick. "Definition of and Purpose of Utopian Literature." Utopian Visions in
Speculative Fiction. Depaw University, 7 Dec. 2011. Web. 06 Aug. 2013.
Kilgore, Witt Douglas. Astrofuturism: Science, Race, and Visions of Utopia in Space. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania, 2003. Print.
Lenin, Vladimir. "Lenin: Two Utopias." Marxists. Marxists.org, n.d. Web. 19 May 2013.
Mannheim, Karl, Louis Wirth, and Edward Shils. Ideology and Utopia; an Introduction to the
Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1936. Print.
Mendelsohn, Everett. Nineteen Eighty-four: Science between Utopia and Dystopia. Dordrecht [etc.:
D. Reidel, 1984. Print.
Ollman, Bertell. "The Utopian Vision of the Future (Then and Now): A Marxist Critique ::
Monthly Review." Monthly Review. N.p., 19 Apr. 2001. Web. 19 May 2013.
Orwell, George. 1984: A Novel. New York, NY: Signet Classic, 1977. Print.
Wegner, Phillip E. Imaginary Communities: Utopia, the Nation, and the Spatial Histories of
Modernity. Berkeley: University of California, 2002. Print.
IV.

Findings
In Susan Bruces introduction to the Oxford Press Three Early Modern Utopias1 (of which

Sir Francis Bacons New Atlantis is included) she examines the character of the early modern
utopia and raises the question of why the authors chose fiction as a way to forward their ideas,
and why they took measures to make the fictional world seem plausible, seem real. Bruce offers

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two definitions of the utopian genre to answer her question: J.C. Davis and Louis Marins
characterizations of utopia. Davis characterization dictates that utopian thought must be
credible in its representation of nature and of humanity and must not achieve the ideal
state through natural abundance of the idealization of humanity but through an ideal
organization. Marins characterization of utopia is an ideological critique of the dominant
ideology. Thus, the consideration of utopian literature also becomes a consideration of political
ideas and the way that they are presented.
Bacon and Orwell crafted their respective texts with their specific ideals, and intentions.
They do differ in the way that they have crafted the readers experience. As Eck had asserted,
the formula that Bacon followed in creating New Atlantis is different from the formula that
Orwell had created. Their individual usage of narrative voice, mythology, themes and imagery
originate from different contexts and different ideals, creating vastly different formulas for the
same end: the forwarding of political ideas.
The New Atlantis is particularly interesting because it is the only fictional work
attributed to Sir Francis Bacon. Bacon was a statesman and a philosophic and scientific writer.
His writings included Essays (1625) and Novum Organum (1620). Novum Organum or New
Instrument contains some of Bacons ideas regarding the importance of empirical thinking
especially in the field of science and is credited as the basis of the modern scientific method.2
Bacon clearly was interested in the importance of scientific thinking and in New Atlantis is a
work unfinished. William Rawley, Bacons secretary published Sylva Sylvarum, or A Natural
History a year after Bacons death, appending New Atlantis to it. Rawley explained that the
fable was written as a model for a college instituted for the interpreting of nature and
producing great and marvelous works for the benefit of men.3Rawley further claims that while
Bacon intended it to be a long text, he was preoccupied with the scientific studies that presented
in Sylva Sylvrum. If we trust Rawleys introduction, then it is clear that New Atalantis was meant
to be a fable, instructive and didactic. In the text, Bacon begins to illustrate his ideas of a perfect
society and the ideal order by which this perfection is achieved.

2
3

Essays
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Bacons tale opens with the narrator; an officer of a ship relates his travels from Peru
towards China. The ship was carried many sick men and little supplies. After fervent prayers
for the ship to come upon land, the men come upon the uncharted island that is Bacons new
Atlantis.