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The Prince Vs Sir Thomas More Rhetorical Analysis

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Regarding the proper role of a ruler, Machiavelli is more convincing in The Prince than Sir Thomas More is in Utopia because Machiavelli is able to use demeaning diction in a brusque writing style to create a stronger emotional appeal between the reader and his pessimistic ideals. In his book addressed to the ruling Medici family of Florence, Machiavelli stresses the importance of using cruelty to subdue a population, claiming that “men...are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous… [and love] is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails” (Machiavelli). By using cynical diction to describe the nature of humans, Machiavelli makes the reader feel disgusted at the thought of their disloyalty, thus making rulers more receptive to Machiavelli’s negative approach to ruling as it satisfies the desire within the reader to fight fire with fire. …show more content…

On the other hand, while trying to oppose the practices of King Henry VIII, Sir Thomas More places increased importance upon ruling with compassion, as he expresses that “A prince ought to take more care of his people’s happiness than of his own, as a shepherd ought to take more care of his flock than of himself” (Utopia). More uses a simile to compare the role of a king to that of a shepherd in order to demonstrate the importance of benevolence and simplicity while

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The Prince: A Decidedly unMedieval Piece of Work The Prince, written by Niccolo Machiavelli, was a secular handbook that dealt with modern statecraft and leadership. In fact, this was the first modern book that discussed political science. This book has influenced many well-known leaders, such as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. This essay will discuss the past behaviours of Machiavelli to prove that this book, The Prince, is a decidedly unMedieval piece of work which does not follow the idea of living life so that it is worthy of respect and honour, as stated in the Medieval Code of Chivalry.

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Then for Machiavelli he talks about how a prince should show no fear instead for him to show that he is the one with power. That a prince's people should fear him. Both authors go on to talk on how their people react based on the prince and princesse act. The authors then go on to explain how they should view and run their people. Both authors also reflect the fact that the way their people are going to act towards them is mainly based off of how they treat them.

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In Niccolo Machiavelli's book, The Prince (1513), he evaluates on how a prince can be a successful leader. Machiavelli’s purpose of this guidebook was to construct his argument to the rising ruler Giuliano de Medici for when he comes to power in Florence. He adopts a casual but authoritative tone in order to convince the prince that Machiavelli’s evaluation on how to be the best prince, is the right thing for the prince to do without coming off as he knows more than the prince or is trying to intimidate him.. Machiavelli’s reference to previous rulers and whether their tactics failed or succeeded helps to benefit his credibility along with his allusion to historic text. He appeals to our logic by simply stating a prince can only do what is within his power to control, and his use of an analogy furthers his argument.

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Machiavelli argues the perfect prince will be both feared and loved by his people, and if unable to be both he will make himself feared and not hated. Machiavelli believes it is much safer to be feared than to be loved because people are less likely to offend and stand up against strong characters, also people are less concerned in offending a prince who has made himself loved. Accordingly, Machiavelli believes generosity is harmful to your reputation and the choice between being generous or stingy, merciful or cruel, honest or deceitful, should only be important if it aids the prince in political power. All in all, Machiavelli believes the ruler must be a great deceiver and do what is essential to uphold power over the

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Machiavelli’s The Prince (2012) is often misunderstood as a sort of “manual” for tyrants, mostly due to his infamous “better to be loved than feared or feared than loved” quote (p. 59). This oft-cited but tenuously understood quotation seems to have secured its place in history as the go-to phrase when discussing cruel and dictatorial leadership. The “feared/loved” quote, however, was not written to condone or promote tyranny. According to Machiavelli (2012), a leader always should “wish to be both,” while recognizing and accepting the fact that it is “difficult to unite [love and fear] in one person” (p. 59).

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The Prince, written by Machiavelli, is a candid outline of how he believes leaders gain and keep power. Machiavelli uses examples of past leaders to determine traits that are necessary to rule successfully. Leaders such as the King of Naples and the Duke of Milan lacked military power, made their subjects hate them, or did not know how to protect themselves from the elite, causing them to lose power. He says that these rulers should blame laziness, not luck, for their failures. By looking at these historical successes and failures, Machiavelli is able to develop his own thoughts on how politics and leaders should be in the future.

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Power and political order are prevalent themes throughout sixteenth century works, and are addressed extensively in Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” and Shakespeare's “Henry V.” Machiavelli wrote “The Prince” as a guide to being a successful leader, and the qualities he explains are actuated throughout Shakespeare’s “Henry V.” Although the two works were written by different authors several years apart, they are both contemporary power and political order stories that exemplify the qualities of a good leader. The leadership that King Henry V demonstrates throughout the play parallels Machiavelli’s teaching about virtue in warfare, and the importance of being feared rather than loved, the two-body ruler. For example, Machiavelli explains the importance

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The term, “Machiavellian” has been coined by scholars to describe individuals that are cunning and unscrupulous in their methods to gain political power. In 1513, Machiavelli wrote the controversial novel, The Prince that supported the separation of politics from the morality advocated for leaders to have by the Catholic Church. Machiavelli wrote the novel while Italy was in political turmoil during sixteenth century as a guideline for princes in how to gain, rule, and keep states. Machiavelli’s writing still manages to be relevant in modern times through the advice he presents to a prince in how to confront challenges.

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Machiavelli states rulers should gain and maintain power by whatever means possible, even brutality and manipulation. Machiavelli also believed that commoners were only loyal to their leaders when their needs were met. He thought manipulation should be used to convince the commoners that their needs and interest were met. Overall, Machiavelli viewed the commoners as an essential source of power for leaders, felt they were somewhat challenging to control, and must be carefully governed to gain stability in the state and avoid insurrection (Machiavelli, 1532/2003).

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Evidently, Machiavelli explains, "A prince, therefore, so as to keep his subjects united and faithful, should not care about the infamy of cruelty" (Machiavelli 65). Also, he believes that too much mercy will create disorder whereas killings and robberies would occur too often. What is different about Machiavelli's beliefs, is that he thinks being mean is an extremely effective way to rule. Although mean may seem as a lousy way to call a ruler, he thinks that rulers should not be bothered by the word. Machiavelli believes that a prince should not establish a reputation for generosity or he will destroy his state.

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As the least harsh description we have Quentin Skinner’s ideas. He explained Machiavelli’s thoughts about the human nature and his advices of cruelty to the princes by saying acts can be seen reasonable through seeing them as a “last best” option. By his words ‘ Machiavelli prefers conformity to moral virtue ceteris

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Both of these highly influential authors had different opinions on ruling that would shape how people would rule during their time and for rulers to come. One of Machiavelli’s major points in The Prince was that it was better to be feared than to be loved. He said this was because while both ways can be useful tools to help one rule, men are less likely to turn a ruler if they were afraid of punishment. Machiavelli had little faith in the common man and had this to say about them, “They are ungrateful, fickle, deceptive and deceiving, avoiders of dangers, eager to gain”(pg.353).

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I. Machiavelli In his famous work the Prince Niccolo Machiavelli exposes what it takes to be a good prince and how only this good price and keep control over his state. There are many different qualities that make a man a good ruler but there are some that are more essential than others. In this work Machiavelli stresses the importance of being a warrior prince, a wise prince, and knowing how to navigate the duality of virtù and vices. Without these attributes there was no way that a prince could hold together their state and their people.

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