The New Atlantis is a short novel by
Francis Bacon. The novel starts with a ship, lost at sea trying to
reach China but are strayed off towards the island of Bensalem, A
Utopian society. As the crew arrives, they are questioned about their
religion, and are told that the people of Bensalem are devout
Christians. The island does not welcome these forgieners into their
land, but does allow them to dock and take a break for a few days.
Only because they are followers of Christ. Eventually, a worker from
Bensalem is hired to watch over the travellers during their stay.
During this, the worker tells the history of the island, of it's
people, and the college-like “Salomon's House”. The travellers
attempt to repay the worker for his kindness, but they are turned
down unexpectedly. As the days go by, the crew learns more of
Bensalem's history but is still not allowed to venture out on their
own to explore it. Eventually, the crew is permitted to meet the
Governor who is the Head of Salomon's house. Bacon begins to describe
the Governor's entrance in great detail, emphasizing the luxury of
the Governor. Then the most anticipated portion of the story begins,
the Governor starts describing Bensalem's beauty and bounty in the
most detailed way possible. Bacon here also starts using words that
emphasize large and expensive, to the point where Bensalem is truly
becoming a Utopia for the reader. As the Governor describes all of
Bensalem's features, he mentions that it is a virgin island, and no
stray wanderer is allowed to reside in it. Bensalem's great reward is
the reward of light, and it is more valuable than currency. Due to
this explanation, everything that is considered erratic about the
characters of Bensalem are finally brought full circle and the
Governor leaves the travellers speechless. After a blessing, the
Governor instructs the travellers to make the most out of their stay,
and then leave immediately never to return. Bacon makes the
travellers never truly explore Bensalem, but instead invents
futuristic ideas that are only spoken of but never interacted with.
His inventions are found everywhere during the Governor's speech and
are practically prophetic, but are also vague enough to keep Bensalem
itself a mystery.
I'm afraid if I had not read The New Atlantis, I wouldn't really comprehend the purpose of the story. You have basically strung together many fo0 the things that happen, but never really told me what the core of the essay is--to reveal Bacon's utopian vision of a future society based on science, technology and reason. It would also be helpful to tell us when it was written...this context is important.
ReplyDeleteEven in a short summary like you have written, be sure to use paragraphs to set your ideas apart, and try to avoid excess wordiness. Finally, highlighting just a couple of the technological visions revealed at Salomon's House would have added important context.