Machiavelli: The Prince of Political Writing

1219 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The prince niccolo machiavelli analysis

Lozano 4 of participating in a conspiracy to restore the republic, because of this he was sent to jail for three weeks, and tortured. He fled the city of Florence, and decided to settle down in a calm quiet town called Sant’Andrea. He also decided to continue his dream and career as a writer. In 1513 he started to write his Discourses, this book focused on states controlled by the prince and the citizens. It was not finished until 1521, because he interrupted his work on Discourses to write the very famous The Prince.
“Machiavelli wanted to return to his longtime dream and understanding of politics. One of his goals in writing The Prince was to win the favor of Lorenzo de’ Medici, then-governor of Florence and the person …show more content…

A definition, which argues against the concept, brought forward by the Catholic Church. He has many metaphors in his novel and many main ideas that he is trying to get across. “The
Lozano 5 lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves” (The Prince: Machiavelli).
The main point that he is trying to get across is the question, “Is it better to be feared rather than loved?” and he explains very thoroughly in The prince his thoughts and views on this question and he says that “it is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails” (The Prince: Machiavelli). He also covers the topics of religion, morality, power, and of course politics.
Another topic he covers is cruelty, if cruelty is used in the right way the prince will gain much respect and it will preserve a prince’s safety or will help secure the state; it is safer for a prince to be feared than it is for him to be loved because no one will listen or respect a leader who they take to be a joke. Men fear punishment, and this can be used to a prince’s advantage. Men will not disobey if there is a chance of them being killed or thrown in …show more content…

Generosity should be exhibited to a point. Machiavelli never directly says things towards the church, but he makes it clear he disagrees with many of the church’s policies. At the end of his novel he puts out a desire and goal to make Italy one again. He also gives many explanations and ways that this could be achieved. Out of anyone he had the most faith in Italy and their government even if he was no longer a part of it. He even personally confronts Lorenzo de Medici as the possible savior of Italy. Niccolo says “There is no figure presently in sight, in whom [Italy] can better place her trust than your illustrious house, which, with its fortune and its merits, favored by God and the Church of which it is now the head, can take the lead in this process of redemption.” By this he means bringing Italy together is a way of vindicating it. In the end the overall main point of this novel is that a leader is there to make the difficult choices for his people. It is not his responsibility to be liked or loved, but is instead being feared and respected. This is not implying that he should be brutal, but rather to advance his subject’s security and authority. Many leaders today use this tactic, the show a mean front to their competitors and other nations, but show their caring and loving side to their

Show More
Related

  • The Qualities Of A Prince Rhetorical Analysis

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    Niccolò Machiavelli was a man who lived during the fourteen and fifteen hundreds in Florence, Italy, and spent part of his life imprisoned after the Medici princes returned to power. He believed that he should express his feelings on how a prince should be through writing and became the author of “The Qualities of a Prince.” In his essay, he discusses many points on how a prince should act based on military matters, reputation, giving back to the people, punishment, and keeping promises. When writing his essay, he follows his points with examples to back up his beliefs. In summary, Machiavelli’s “The Qualities of a Prince,” provides us with what actions and behaviors that a prince should have in order to maintain power and respect.

    Read More

  • Machiavelli's Reputation in the Modern World

    2975 Words  | 6 Pages

    Niccolò Machiavelli was known during much his life as a part of the republican government in Florence until 1512. At that time, the Medici family took over the city and ruled under a more monarchical system. From that point until his death in 1527, Machiavelli was always just on the outside of Florentine politics. He would occasionally get work from the Medici but his tasks were never as important as they had been under the republican government of the past. As he was trying to find his way back into a major role in Florentine government, Machiavelli wrote The Prince, a manual of sorts that explained how a monarch should rule his state and why. While Machiavelli had been a strong proponent of republican ideals in the past, in The Prince, his ideas are far from adhering to republicanism. The book seems to promote the ideal monarch as a cold, heartless person whose only goal in life should be to retain power, regardless of who or what he destroys. This includes killing enemies of the state, personal enemies of the Prince, and even, in some cases, friends or family. While The Prince was not the first book of this kind, it was the first to suggest a government that rules with no regard for religion or morality. Machiavelli did not particularly pay heed to religious law in the way he lived his life, but he also did not particularly care for the Catholic Church of the time because of the lack of morality demonstrated by the Pope's and other supposedly "religious men's" actions at the time. There are other works that Machiavelli wrote both before and after The Prince that survive today, as well as letters he wrote to his friends that demonstrate a different set of ideals than th...

    Read More

  • Biography of and Principles Taught By Niccolo Machiavelli

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    By building his career as a diplomat serving the Florentine republic, Niccolò Machiavelli constructs advice for both princes and the citizens of the republic. Machiavelli believes that there is a strong need for a stable and centralized poltical authority and that the moral basis for this rule should be constructed not on the previous values of luck and virtue but by the ideas of determination and choice. To create a successful city state in the current environment of Italy an importance must be placed not just on strategic warfare but on many other personal choices made by the political leaders.

    Read More

  • Machiavelli’s The Prince

    653 Words  | 2 Pages

    Niccolo Machiavelli lived in Florence, Italy in the 1400’s. The country of Italy was divided into city-states that had their own leaders, but all pledged alliance to their king. In time in which great leaders were needed in order to help the development of a city-state and country, Machiavelli had a theory that man needed a leader to control them. In his book The Prince, he speaks of the perfect leader.

    Read More

  • Machiavelli and Rousseau's Views on Human Nature and Government

    558 Words  | 2 Pages

    Machiavelli’s views were drastically different from other humanists at his time. He strongly promoted a secular society and felt morality was not necessary but stood in the way of a successfully governed state. He stated that people generally tended to work for their own best interests and gave little thought to the well being of the state. He distrusted citizens saying, “In time of adversity, when a state is in need of its citizens, there are few to be found.” In his writings in The Prince, he constantly questioned the citizens’ loyalty and warned for the leaders to be wary in trusting citizens. His radical and distrusting thoughts on human nature were derived out of concern for Italy’s then unstable government. Machiavelli also had a s...

    Read More

  • Machiavelli's The Prince: Still Relevant after All These Years

    2155 Words  | 5 Pages

    The subject of human nature has great emphasis in “The Prince”. Human beings are viewed as rational decision makers who try to maximize their self-interest. They are inclined to help whoever will give them the most benefits and by definition, may easily betray someone to whom they were previously loyal seeing a better opportunity. A large part of being a prince or a politician is being able to lead people, and therefore it is of utter importance in how to deal with their behavior. “Here a question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse. The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will fin...

    Read More

  • Erasmus Vs Machiavelli

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Prince, Machiavelli separates ethics from politics. His approach to politics, as outlined in The Prince, is strictly practical. Machiavelli is less concerned with what is right and just, and instead with what will lead to the fortification of the government and the sustainment of power. Machiavelli believed that a ruler should use any means necessary to obtain and sustain power. He says, “…people judge by outcome. So if a ruler wins wars and holds onto power, the means he has employed will always be judged honorable, and everyone will praise them” (Machiavelli, 55). According to Machiavelli, the ends of an action justify the means (Machiavelli, 55). His motivation for these views in The Prince was the reunification of the Italian city-states (Machiavelli, 78-79). Machiavelli wanted Italy to return to its glory of the Roman Empire (Machiavelli 78-79). Some of the beliefs of Machiavelli could be perceived as evil and cruel, but he found them necessary. Machiavelli was not concerned with making people happy. His purpose was outcome and success, and in his opinion, the only way to be successful was to be realistic. These views of Machiavelli could classify him as one of the earliest modern

    Read More

  • Examples Of Individualism In The Prince

    949 Words  | 2 Pages

    Such a handbook was necessary for Italian leaders such as Lorenzo de Medici, for Italy was disjointed and had to be unified if disaster was to be averted. The Prince explains a political ideology that involves disregard of morals, as shown when Machiavelli suggests that contrary to Christian morals, a prince should aspire to be feared rather than loved, contrasting typical individualist works, such as Pico’s Oration on the Dignity of Man, that involve the glory and humans through morality in a utopia. For this reason, The Prince was a turning point in Renaissance politics as it was the first time Renaissance humanists and individualists applied their knowledge to “real world” politics. Point-of-View Machiavelli was a well-educated, humanist, individualist, Florentine man who was not nobility and hence, could not use his leadership tactics to take the power, studied classical Greek and Roman writings and art, and wrote about developing one’s individual leadership skills.

    Read More

  • Machiavelli's The Prince

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    What he means is that a man can be feared and not hated. In order to do so one must not interfere with property or women of citizens. The most important thing of all is that he must “abstain from the property of others.” However when it comes to a prince and his army it is neccesray for him to instill fear because it will help keep the soldiers unified. In this situation he should not worry about the idea of cruelty. Machiavelli seems to drift away from humanism when he discusses Hannibal. He describes how Hannibal’s men feared him and saw him as terrible due to his cruelty, which is thought to have been inhuman cruelty. All in all Machiavelli states that being loved depends on the subject while being feared depends on the prince. A wise prince will do as he see right not based on what others say, all the while doing so by doing whatever it takes to escape being

    Read More

  • The Tao-te Ching by Lao-Tzu and The Prince by Machiavelli

    1754 Words  | 4 Pages

    As he begins to conclude, Machiavelli states that the prince: “should think about avoiding those things which make him hated and despised.” (Mach 48) Although these lack any withstanding moral values, they are effective in the sense that they better serve their purpose. Machiavelli was seeking to display a way to hold political power by any means possible not a utopian state. This may mean malicious acts, imprisonment, and torture, or it may mean the utilization of power to achieve a common good. Machiavelli doesn’t elaborate on this. He concentrates on a realistic approach towards government, as he remains concerned with the establishment and protection of power.

    Read More

  • Machiavelli's The Prince

    674 Words  | 2 Pages

    From his dedication letter to the title of the first chapter, we are asked to believe that Machiavelli is concerned with how to rule and whether ethics has any place in such affairs. The bulk of The Prince, however, is focused on the acquisition of territory and finding ways to keep what has been acquired. Machiavelli, it seems, is less interested in classifying states or with the practice of government, which are all treated as prompts to the larger concern: the expansion of the Italian state and maintenance of their stronghold once it is established. Machiavelli looks to history and to his contemporaries for guidance; hoping that somewhere among wealth, fortune and talent there exists some strategy worth

    Read More

  • Machiavelli's The Prince: Literary Analysis

    1326 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the sixteenth century, there were three sets of socioeconomic statuses that one could acquire or be a part of, the clergy, the nobility, and the peasantry. The divide between these three generalized classes was far more complicated in reality that it seems, as socioeconomic classes consist of multiple branches. Nonetheless, it all essentially came down to two undeniable factions, the oppressors and the oppressed. Niccolo Machiavelli, being a mixture of the two due to his living situation while writing the book, gained a middle-ground which allowed him to achieve omnipotent intelligence that so many rulers normally lack, first hand experience of what it like to live both lives, one as a peasant and the other as a nobleman. This omnipotent

    Read More

  • Machiavelli's View On Human Nature

    620 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Prince Niccolo Machiavelli introduces a view of ruling a state that is highly different from the humanists of his time. Machiavelli believed that being Prince should be the one authority controlling every feature of the state and put in place a policy that would serve his best interests at heart. These interests were obtaining, preserving, and developing his political power. Firstly, his knowledge of human nature was a total contradiction of what humanists thought and taught. Machiavelli greatly highlighted a irreligious society and felt that fatality was not obligated but in fact stood in the way of an productively governed state.

    Read More

  • Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince: A Guide to Being an Effective Ruler

    1042 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ch route to take on his way to power, keeping his rule, and how to maintain his military. The ultimate goal for a Prince is to maintain his position and reign, and a Prince can cheat, steal, and lie in order to accomplish that goal. Machiavelli seems to favor a Principality over Republics in this case because a Prince will be safer in a hereditary Principality due to the subjects being more accustomed to the blood of the Prince. Machiavelli’s straightforward advice on the art of warfare is to use your own military and that a Prince should always study the art of war. The ideal situation between a Prince and his subjects is to be feared rather loved, so that there is order. There is a difference between being feared and hated, and as long as the Prince doesn’t take a subjects property, women, or execute a subject without a proper cause.

    Read More

  • Machiavelli: The Father of Modern Political Science

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    The book The Prince was a book of advice to politicians regarding how gain power and keep that power. The title The Prince is not about someone who has inherited land and a decedent to a king. In Machiavelli’s perspective a prince was a man of the citizens....

    Read More

More about Machiavelli: The Prince of Political Writing

Open Document