Rhetorical Analysis Of Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince

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Genghis Khan a revered warlord by some, and feared by many. Genghis Khan has ruled a vast empire, a crazy twelve million square miles which had continued to spread until his death. His empire was so vast from all the land and people he conquered, it has been said that one in two hundred men are direct descendants of Genghis Khan, which is quite a plausible claim. Everywhere Genghis Khan marched, troops followed and cities were razed. Many trembled in fear to surrender to his ranks, others who did not die merciless deaths. Genghis Khan stood for everything Niccolo Machiavelli advocated for. Niccolo Machiavelli was a philosopher of the Renaissance age, born in Florence, Italy. Niccolo wrote a book named The Prince which has gained quite some …show more content…

His mindset was simple. to manifest dismay and use the overwhelming power as a dictator. His intentions are clear, and his words are powerful. With a combination of rhetorical devices, a symphony of teachings are made and preached. Machiavelli is a strong advocate to use fear to herd together the common man, he begins his argument by asking a simple question, “ Here the question… safer than to be loved”. He utilizes hypophora, a method utilized by writers to hook readers on with a question which sets him up for his claim. The use of hypophora is like an alley-oop, the player that passes the ball to the dunker is the question which sets up the other player for a dunk. After instilling the question of whether it is better to be loved or feared Machiavelli lead the idea into our forethought, then he answers the question which immediately severances our time for thought on the question. By reply to the question right after, Machiavelli pitches the idea to the heirs of these imperiums, providing a higher prospect of them accepting that ideology as an answer. Machiavelli has such confidence that fear is much safer to be loved. He believes that by utilizing fear, the common men that will easily betray dare not to ever turn their backs for fear of death. For the terror of their common and worthless lives to their merciless tyrant. That sentence provides the main idea for the rest of his book, it helps prove his point by giving us the straight forward answer to the premise of the book. That sentence is a claim to Machiavelli boldly follows by and will not falter to an opposing idea. Machiavelli persistently elaborates on the idea that fear is powerful motive that is not to be reckoned with, he starts to state the fault in the common man. Machiavelli states “ For it is a good general rule… the danger is remote,”. Machiavelli here utilizes the rule of thirds, and partially inductive