The Prince Rhetorical Analysis

Improved Essays
Kayla Southworth
Professor Tshimanga-Kashama
CH 202-1204
February 12th, 2015
Prince fearing In Niccolò Machiavelli’s “The Prince (CA. 1516)” he writes about princes and how it is better for them to be feared than loved while avoiding hatred. Emanuel Sieyès “What is the third estate? (1789)” is a pamphlet he releases talking about how the varying estates are different and cant form a solid government from which he then comprises that the third estate makes up the majority of the French; where the third estate then needs to become something where he then states what should be done for that third estate to become something. Unjust is widely viewed as being something that no one wants to be deemed as and within reading “The Prince (CA. 1516)”
…show more content…
This is seen when he states “One can make this generalization about men: they are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit…” (Machiavelli 10). In stating this he is saying that men do not care about the prince because the prince is not their first priority like wealth is. It is there that he goes on to state in his piece that being loved would not maintain order, while instilling fear would. This is seen when he states “For love is secured by a bond of gratitude which men, wretched creatures that they are, break when it is to their advantage to do so; but fear is strengthened by a dread of punishment which is always effective” (Machiavelli 10). By stating this Machiavelli is saying if a prince is to caring they will be taken advantage of where if they were to be feared they would be remembered as a power that maintains order. It is from there that he goes on providing examples of how fear is to be more advantageous for a prince as the princes subjects that he spoke of stayed loyal from which he then concludes his piece proclaiming without the doubt that fear is better than love. In that, proving that Machiavelli believing a prince must be feared to maintain power and keep society going shows that Machiavelli …show more content…
This can be seen when he states “If the privileged order were abolished, the nation would be not something less but something more” (Sieyès 156). In stating this he is proclaiming if the French were to rid of the hierarchy they would be better off. It is from there on that he goes on to state how the Frenches government is preventing prosperity for the French citizens from which if they were to get rid of that type of government they would flourish as a society. This shows a stark contrast from Machiavelli’s view of a prince not being able to do anything unjust because his entire piece gives reason for why the third state should take over and provide justice to their society. Therefore, by putting his pamphlet together in this fashion proving that Sieyès highly disagrees with Machiavelli’s view of a

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Niccolo Machiavelli wrote "The Qualities of the Prince" in July 1513 in Florence, Italy, to convey his idea of the strong, active, and perfect ruler to the current ruling the Medicis. The work is remembered and responsible for bringing “Machiavellian” into wide usage as a pejorative term. The essay takes a stringent position on the proper way to govern a nation. With a straightforward logic, a relevant idea, and an expressed method, Machiavelli’s “The Qualities of the Prince” is a practical guide for current…

    • 85 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Machiavelli’s Prince seeks to recruit and educate a ruler in the art of ruling. His ideal rulers are founders, men who created a fatherland and were not afraid to sacrifice lives and their self-interests for the common good. Machiavelli stresses that a ruler needs to appear virtuous while using vices when necessary to achieve positive results. Machiavelli teaches the ruler to divide his self. “It is essential, therefore, for a Prince […] to have learned how to be other than good, and to use or not use his goodness as necessity requires” (Machiavelli, 40).…

    • 1300 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In one section of the article, Vincent Barnett discusses some of the alternative ways that Machiavelli’s The Prince can be interpreted. One interpretation was that Machiavelli possibly intended for his writing to be satirical, because certain facts, such as how Machiavelli had a family, refute his statement from the pamphlet that he believes all humans are evil. Also, it is possible that Machiavelli didn’t actually agree with the ideas in his writing, but he only wrote those things to gain favor from the leaders of his time. These are just possibilities, but knowing about Machiavelli’s life and his situation are important in order to understand his motives for writing The Prince. Just like Machiavelli, present-day leaders and authors make…

    • 186 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “A man who has given away a small fortune, forsaken a loving family, abandoned his car, watch, and map, and burned the last of his money before traipsing off into the wilderness” (71). The national best selling book, “Into the Wild” written by Jon Krakauer tells the story about a man name Chris McCandless. The story takes place in 1990’s and tells the adventures of the a man who changes his name to Alex Supertramp. The story tells the readers of the book:all the different people he met on his journey, where he want and how he died. As the author writees about Chris’s life and his connections with the story he includes many different types of writting styles including rhetoricstragides.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Niccolò Machiavelli spent a large majority of his aristocratic platform defaming the many intrinsic characteristics of human emotion and experience. He consciously ignored the essential acts of care and compassion while promoting a message of fear and hate. His teachings offered detailed instructions on the succession and maintenance of a fear-abiding society encapsulated by submission. His philosophy stated that the best interest of the general public was to irrefutably follow the rule of law. To Machiavelli, a human life could be explained as an expendable resource, awaiting its designated task to serve the ruling class.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Niccolò Machiavelli and Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca went through different experiences that led them to have their own perspectives in human nature and create their ideals for good governance. The simple fact that Cabeza de Vaca was unfortunate enough to have a hard time throughout the expedition made him more open minded about human nature, while Machiavelli had a set idea of what human nature was and how it ties to good governance. Machiavelli's view on human nature is the same as what is a good governance a good leader and a good human being is someone who knows how to be respected and feared without being hated and how that leads to have the people the Prince governs happy and on his side. Cabeza de Vaca has a more down to earth view on human nature but that differs…

    • 2016 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Machiavelli and Hobbes both address the impact the human emotion of fear has on the political realm. In The Prince, Machiavelli explains how fear is a tool meant to be manipulated by the prince as a means to keep the people in line with the law and loyal. Not enough fear instilled in the public may lead them to disloyalty and then the dethroning of the prince; on the other hand, too much fear perpetuates hatred among the people and leads once again to the prince’s removal. Unlike seeing human fear as a tool, Hobbes in the Leviathan describes it more as a natural emotion of human which pushes the creations of covenants—social agreements or contracts among the people and the sovereign. In the state of nature, the natural condition of men without…

    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    This implies that true love has no fear or interferences. Although she caused the destruction within her life, she was welling to do anything to have her happy-ever-after. In beauty and the beast, the film teaches that that true love doesn’t discriminate on appearance, boundaries, and distance. The true message of this film is to never judge a book by its cover. At the beginning, the prince had a beautiful appearance but a nasty heart, until the Prince was cursed into an ugly beast.…

    • 1567 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I partially agree with this statement. While the Renaissance Era was a reaction to the narrow and practical way of thinking that was common in the medieval period, it did not reject all aspects of the medieval era. Instead, it embraced and expanded the idea of religion, the relationship one had with their God, and admired pieces of literature from ancient eras. Humanism during the Renaissance worked on reviving cultural and classical literature with the goal of spreading humanities (grammar, poetry, history, and philosophy). During this time, humanism and religion were actually pretty intertwined.…

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.” Machiavelli uses this analogy as an attempt to teach the masses how to embrace their human significance. Machiavelli wrote The Prince at a time where there was political unrest and confusion in Italy, which is why it can be interpreted in many different ways, such as a political satire or epilogue of his political views; however, while the content may be confusing the true meaning of The Prince is to be understood as a satire. Machiavelli is continuously sarcastic through out the course of the novel about the government standings and the changing world.…

    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He believed that it was better to be feared instead of loved. “From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved more than feared or feared more than love. The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting” (Machiavelli 61). This is overall view of fear but more importantly how would he relate to the current international system today. Machiavelli states “I conclude, therefore, with regarding to being feared and loved, that men love at their own free will, but fear at the will of the prince, and that a wise prince must rely on what is in his power and not on the power of others” (Machiavelli 63).…

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In many political philosopher’s eyes, there is a special relationship between the ideas of moral goodness and legitimate authority. Some of these political philosophers believed that the use of political power was only morally correct if it was exercised under a ruler who had virtuous morals. These rulers who had virtuous morals were then told that in order to be successful, they needed to make decisions in accordance with the standards of ethical goodness. This moralistic view of authority is what Machiavelli criticizes in his work “The Prince.” In Machiavelli’s book, “The Prince,” the readers are introduced to political values that do not necessarily give full recognition to morality or religion.…

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the written work “The Prince” by Niccolo Machiavelli the author elaborates on how a prince can only be a strong leader if he engages in duplicity. Machiavelli focused on a more realistic and immoral strategy to keep the people of his time unified, realpolitik a system based on practical rather than moral considerations. The author, Niccolo Machiavelli, goes through great depths to explain why it takes rulers who are “cruel, dishonest, duplicitous, and manipulative.” There are many great examples to prove his ideology, however, the writing is very subjective and bias as Machiavelli does not give a rebuttal to the different kinds of ruling. He writes “The Prince” after the current leading family of his time falls in order to keep the stability…

    • 1637 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The analysis of Machiavelli as an amoralist – someone who disregards common views of what is right and wrong, unconcerned with morality as a whole (as compared to being immoral, and going against them) – is complicated. A traditional view of morality advocates for not doing wrong or harm to others, for altruism, and kindness. Nowhere in his philosophical work The Prince, first published in 1532, does Machiavelli show any regard for this kind of morality. The Prince is a guidebook for the maintenance of power by a prince (the name he gives to any sovereign); Machiavelli’s sole concern is how to stay in power and best exert it to prolong your rule and prosperity. However, this argument can only be made with a traditional, standard view of morality…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Machiavelli argues that too much compassion brings along dire consequences, as too much mercy allow disorders to take place, thus justifying acts of cruelty, on occasion, in order to prevent such outcomes from happening. Therefore, acts of cruelty may also be used to protect the people. This leads to Machiavelli’s answer to his famous question, arguing that while one hopes to be both feared and loved, it is nearly impossible to carry out such high standards. Being feared is more preferable, as those living under the ruler’s feared reputation are protected from acts of evil. In addition, Machiavelli argues that men are “ungrateful, fickle, pretenders and dissemblers, evaders of danger, eager for gain”, which should dissuade princes from too much compassions, as they will be taken advantage of from the…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays