Machiavelli The Prince Rhetorical Analysis

Moustapha I Toure
Intro to Political Summary
Critical Response Essay #2
Many empirical things can often still be debated and refuted by experts, but there is a general admittance to the idea that power is the root of many evil things. In all fairness, we must admit that a many evil things can in their essence, be great. And that is one of the many theories advanced by Niccolo Machiavelli in his well-known work, The Prince. The Prince serves a dual purpose of both teaching a person how to attain power, but also how to retain it. Incredibly enough, history has proven most of Machiavelli’s findings and theories to work well, while some have failed to effectively secure power for the rulers who did, in fact try them. His work, does obviously highlight one main fact, which is, that power is a well sought-after attribute, and most who attain are willing to do whatever is necessary to keep it.
Machiavelli enumerated in his work, different types of princedoms and whether they are bound to fail from the start, simply based on their type and the way they are attained. Those princedoms are either Hereditary, Mixed, or completely New. Hereditary princedoms would of course be those in which power is passed down within a family. Mixed princedoms would be princedoms that are reinvented through

They were all very true and I certainly agree with most of it. It reminds me of the phrase, “with great power comes great responsibilities”, and while I do not condone violence nor the obsession of one, to remain in a position of power, I certainly do no object to the idea that many inhumane things need to be done in order for power to be kept. Crude power as presented in The Prince, requires that one be vicious, merciless, feared and respected. We are often told that, in life, we must do whatever is necessary to reach our goals. Why should the attention of power be any