Petrarch and Machiavelli Essay

In The Prince, Machiavelli discusses ways in which a ruler should obtain power and maintain power, emphasizing the concept of gaining power through virtue versus fortune. Virtue, or virtu in the original Italian, is defined as the masculine quality of power, and not necessarily tied to ideas of morality as it is in the English definition.

Therefore if a prince wants to maintain his rule, he must be prepared not to be virtuous, and to make use of this or not according to need” (“The Influence of Machiavelli on Shakespeare”).

In The Prince, Machiavelli explains what a good and successful prince should be like. He advocates a strong, cutthroat authority figure and encourages the winning of power by any means necessary. The main theme in The Prince is that mob rule is dangerous, for people know only what is good for themselves and not what is good for the whole. The common people, in Machiavelli’s view, “are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit; while you treat them well, they are yours”. He believes that these commoners should be

For example, he mentions many virtues that are good for princes (or leaders in general) to possess; these are things such as parsimony, pity, and compassion. However, Machiavelli further explains that “[i]t is not necessary, then, for a prince really to have all the virtues mentioned above, but it is very necessary to seem to have them all” (1064). Basically, he is arguing that the appearance of virtue is of greater value than virtue itself. From Machiavelli’s perspective, others’ opinions and view of the leader matter more than who the leader truly is. He later says, “men in general judge more by their eyes than by their hands” (1068).

In Machiavelli, he states, ”I know that everyone will admit that it would be highly praiseworthy in a prince to possess all the above-named qualities that are reputed good, but as they cannot all be possessed or observed, human conditions not permitting of it, it is necessary that he should be prudent enough to avoid the scandal of those vices which would lose him the state, and guard himself if possible against those which will not lose it him, but if not able to, he can indulge them with less scruple. Basically he saying that having many good qualities of what seems an ideal king would not built a structure or a system that is functioning and should make wise decision for what is best for his country. All of this shows Machiavelli views are the same as we are in our society by created a system that is functioning. From this we learn we need to understand what is bad or

his work, The Prince, Machiavelli references dozens of infamous men and women who are leaders and rulers in their own right. However, he recognizes them for many failures rather than for their successes and conquests. Machiavelli attributes the failure and blame entirely to the fact that none of the mentioned individuals properly adhered to his “rules”. Machiavelli meticulously describes and outlines his ideas of what essential “Prince” qualities are, hoping that someone who reads them will follow his words and turn them into actions. A careful audience who reads the meaning and not just the content will see that The Prince is simply Machiavelli carrying out his plan by covertly doing everything he describes in his outline.

"Machiavelli identifies the interests of the prince with the interests of the state." He felt that it was human nature to be selfish, opportunistic, cynical, dishonest, and gullible, which in essence, can be true. The state of nature was one of conflict; but conflict, Machiavelli reasoned, could be beneficial under the organization of a ruler. Machiavelli did not see all men as equal. He felt that some men were better suited to rule than others. I believe that this is true in almost any government. However, man in general, was corrupt -- always in search of more power. He felt that because of this corruptness, an absolute monarch was necessary to insure stability. Machiavelli outlined what characteristics this absolute ruler should have in The Prince. One example of this can be seen in his writings concerning morality. He saw the Judeo-Christian values as faulty in the state's success. "Such visionary expectations, he held, bring the state to ruin, for we do not live in the world of the "ought," the fanciful utopia, but in the world of "is". The prince's role was not to promote virtue, but to insure security. He reasoned that the Judeo-Christian values would make a ruler week if he actually possessed them, but that they could be useful in dealing with the citizens if the prince seemed to have these qualities. Another example of Machiavelli's ideal characteristics of a prince

Machiavelli in his work informs the prince that even if he does possess certain qualities he shall always appear to his followers as retaining all of these qualities as shown in the following quotation “A prince, therefore, need not necessarily have all the good qualities I mentioned above, but he should certainly appear to have them… He should appear to be compassionate, faithful to his word, kind guileless, and devout… He should not deviate from what is good, if that is possible, but he should know how to do evil, if that is necessary” (Machiavelli 57). Machiavelli highlights that image is extremely crucial for rulers and they must alter the perceptions of their people in regard to him in order to appear in control at all times for the purpose of maintaining and sustaining control. This idea is overturning

Back in the monarchy day, where an entire nation is rule by a person, either a King or a Queen. People assuming that every single ruler have to be kind and set a good example to their people. However, in the four excerpt of the “Prince”, written by Machiavelli Niccolo, a diplomat and political theorist, to send a message to Lorenzo de’ Medicito on how to be a successful prince. Machiavelli express in an understand tone that to be a good ruler it is necessary to be both evil and good by using a compound-complex sentence with negative adjectives, reality example and visuality imagery.

In Machiavelli’s The Prince, he also gives gives guidelines on morality. In contrast to The New Testament, Machiavelli gives advice on how to be the most effective, powerful ruler and how to keep that power (C182). He acknowledges that to be a successful ruler, you will not be able to always be the good guy. This is shown on page 186 of volume C of our text, in Chapter 15, Machiavelli writes, “… because anyone who determines to act in

Machiavelli, specifically, had an idea in mind of how a leader should conduct himself and what morals he should value. Straightforwardly, he explained that he considered it unnecessary for a prince to have moral qualities; a prince should instead only “seem” to have them. Thus, it is “useful to seem compassionate, faithful, humane, [and] honest”; however, if one possesses these attributes, it can be destructive (Machiavelli 95). This is since a prince “is often required to act against faith, against charity, against humaneness, and against religion” to maintain his position (Machiavelli 95). Regarding reputation, Machiavelli clarifies whether it is better to be feared or loved by the people. Both are important, but when they are in conflict, “it

In The Morals of the Prince Machiavelli expresses his presumption on how a prince should act. He expresses that a prince should be feared, merciful, stingy, etc. He is right because if a prince is loved and too generous then people will take advantage of him and that will lead to his down fall. A prince must act appropriately to remain in power. Machiavelli gives his best ideas to keep a prince in power.

In other words Machiavelli says that human nature praises certain qualities and blame others, but there is no way that humans can do all the good things while avoiding the bad things. What makes a "good prince" in the eyes of Machiavelli is one that figures out how to not take so much blame when he does wrong, and tries to do as many good things as he can. For example regarding generosity and miserliness, Machiavelli says to be considered truly generous, one must be miserly at times:"A prince, therefore, being unable to use his virtue of generosity in a manner which will not harm himself... should, if he is wise, not worry about being called a miser; for with time, he will come to be considered more generous..." (53) In one final contrast, according to Machiavelli in regards to courage and cowardice, mercy and treachery he says "That every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel; never the less, he must take care not to misuse this mercy...Therefore, a prince must not worry about the reproach of cruelty, when it is a matter of keeping his subjects united and loyal" (55). According to Machiavelli,

Machiavelli goes on in Chapters Fifteen through Twenty Three to discuss his advice to the reader in the ideal behavior and characteristics of a prince. He mentions that doing good would only lead to the ruin of a prince’s kingdom. He claims that a prince should be stingy and cruel as opposed to generous and merciful. He then, of course, adds in examples of successful rulers who were both moral and immoral alike. A prince should break promises more than he keeps them, according to the author. He also suggests that, while behaving in the aforementioned ways, a prince should do his best to avoid being despised by leaving his subjects’ land and women alone and by undertaking great projects to boost his reputation. As suggested at the beginning of Chapter Nineteen, a prince should not be “fickle, frivolous, effeminate, cowardly, [or] irresolute,” (70). ¬¬¬He should also choose wise, as opposed to flattering, advisors.

When reading Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, one can’t help but grasp Machiavelli’s argument that morality and politics can not exist in the same forum. However, when examining Machiavelli’s various concepts in depth, one can conclude that perhaps his suggested violence and evil is fueled by a moral end of sorts. First and foremost, one must have the understanding that this book is aimed solely at the Prince or Emperor with the express purpose of aiding him in maintaining power. Therefore, it is essential to grasp his concepts of fortune and virtue. These two contrary concepts reflect the manner in which a Prince should govern while minimizing all chance and uncertainty. This kind of governing demands violence to be taken, however this