The Garden
At the beginning of the book, More and his interlocutors go back to his home: "After greeting one another and exchanging the usual civilities of strangers upon their first meeting, we all went to my house. There in the garden we sat down on a bench covered with grassy turf to talk together" (1.11). That the friends have decided to speak in a garden is a significant symbol in the text. Gardens (or other outdoor spaces set apart from the rest of the world, in Latin referred to as "locus amoenus" or "pleasant place") were well-established settings for philosophical discussions in earlier literature, specifically that from antiquity. When More's characters retreat to his garden, this is a symbol of the text's philosophical nature, despite its primary subject matter of traveling and exploration.
Travel and Discovery
Many scholars interpret Utopia as an allegory for travel and discovery. Because of the way Hythloday describes the idyllic Utopia, the civilization is often read as a physical manifestation of man's desire to find a world that is better than our own. Indeed, just 15 years before More wrote Utopia, Christopher Columbus had sailed to North America and "discovered" the New World (this is, of course, a fiction given that Native Americans were already occupying the continent when Columbus arrived).
Weariness
The motif of weariness, old age, and weathered appearance is usually associated with Raphael Hythloday, whom More describes as "a man of quite advanced years" with "a sunburned face, a long beard and a cloak hanging loosely from his shoulders" (1.9). This motif has a literary precedent in ancient stories about other weary travelers such as Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey and Aeneus in Virgil's Aeneid. When readers encounter these characters, they are noticeably changed in their appearance, and this change is meant to reflect not only the physical toll that traveling takes on the body but also the emotional and philosophical changes that one experiences through travel and exploration.
The Island
Utopia is a civilization on an island, an important symbol in the text and early modern literature more generally. Traditionally, islands are settings where magical, mythical, and at times unreal things take place. It is therefore fitting that More would make an island of Utopia, which literally translates to "no place," or somewhere unimaginable in its greatness. The island itself is a symbol of exceptionalism and uniqueness; Francis Bacon would take up this same symbol in his utopian work New Atlantis, published more than a century after More wrote Utopia.
Fool
The Fool is both a character and a symbol in the text. In early modern English society and literature, fools were professional performers for entertainment, but they were also speakers of truth who could not necessarily be punished the same way as other citizens would for any criticisms they spoke. When the Fool in Utopia criticizes the Friar by comparing him to a beggar, the Friar becomes incensed. The Fool, however, has used his position to speak honestly about some of the more unsavory characteristics of the Church.
