Machiavelli's Purpose Of Aeneas

The answer for the question “why?” varies from worldviews to worldviews. As followers of Christ, Christians’ purpose in life is to glorify God and spread the Gospel to all nations. However, not everyone agrees with Christians. While Aeneas’ purpose was the State, Thorstein affirmed solely in the power of masculinity. Machiavelli’s purpose revolved around power, yet the Voyagers purpose to discover new experiences. Clov’s purpose, however, was nothing. Among these five characters of literature, the Voyagers give the most convincing answer about the question “Why?” since he constantly sought for a higher purpose while the others grounded their purpose on a temporary paradigm. In the case of Aeneas, he did not have the most convincing answer

Much like the rest of the previous subjects mentioned above, power and dominance over others also do not last forever in the human realm. During the era of dynasties and kingdoms, kings always desire to have an heir in order to continue his reign of power for they understand that they cannot live forever or able to hold power for all eternity. Therefore, raising the idea of dominance and power as the purpose of life is not a wise decision. Machiavelli, however, did not hold the same belief. He said in the book The Prince that “it is more secure to be feared than to be loved” (1065) Not only so, he also promoted the idea of pretending to have all virtues rather than practicing them in order to preserve his or her power over others. As convincing and eloquent his words may sounded, it is not correct. His method may only help the person obtain power for a certain amount of time. If the citizens know that their leader is nothing but a hypocrite, then they would revolt against the leader, thus making the leader lose his power. This occurrence happened numerous time throughout history, such as the French Revolution. As Amy Jackson said, power is “a gift from God” (Jackson, “The Gift of Power”) However, power is not the purpose of life. Unlike God’s eternal power like Romans 1:20

Unlike the previous characters, the Voyagers from The Voyage by Charles Baudelaire traveled from places to places and acknowledge the sin and corruption of the world around them, “woman, a vile slave, proud in her stupidity, self-worshipping, without the least disgust… power sapping its own tyrant; servile mobs” (2140) Although the Voyager expected to experience new changes and and sensations, he only met with nothing but ugliness and sin. However, he did not fall into despair. Instead, the Voyager turned his boat and seek for a different purpose in order to fill his curiosity and emptiness in life. Although the Voyager sought for death as the new experience, he at least did not give up in his search for something higher than the earthly sinful nature. This is why the Voyager will give a much more convincing answer to the question “why?” Unlike Aeneas who affirmed his existence to the State, which will fall apart at any given moment, the Voyager always seek unearthly subjects rather than the disturbing and vile objects on the Earth. Essentially, he do not concern himself with things of this world, which he acknowledged as sinful and vile. Since the Voyager always want to experience better things than sin, the only answer for his desire is God for “God is light; in him there is no