Machiavelli The Prince Essay

Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian statesman and political philosopher. He lived in Florence, Italy during the 1400’s. During that time period the country of Italy was divided into states which had their own leaders, but controlled by a king. Greatest leaders were needed during the time in order to develop the states and the country. Machiavelli’s theory was that man needs to be a perfect leader to control men, In his book The Prince, he throws light on the perfect leader and describes the means by which a leader may gain and maintain power and how understanding human nature is necessary for a prince. Machiavelli throws a light on the correct behavior of the prince. Machiavelli confesses that many has written on this subject, but he states
that practical rules are needed instead of imaginary. (pg-57) “It has appeared to me more convenient to go after the effective truth of the thing rather than the imagination of it”. “Many have imagined for themselves republics and principalities that no one has ever seen or known to be in reality”. Specially, men never live their whole life virtuously. A prince should not live his whole life virtuously, but with acting so he can achieve the practical benefits. Overall, some characteristics will earn men praise, others condemnation. (Page 58) “someone is considered a giver, someone rapacious; someone cruel, someone piteous; someone fickle, another faithful; someone effeminate and pusillanimous, the other fierce and spirited; someone humane, the other haughty; someone lascivious, the other chaste; someone simple, the other astute; someone hard, the other easy; someone religious, the other unbelieving and such”. Usually prince has all the qualities considered “good” by other men. But in reality, the prince’s first job is to safeguard the state, and use his “bad” characteristics whenever necessary. Such “bad” characteristics are evil if they put the state in danger, but if these “bad” characteristics are used in the interest of the state, a prince must not be influenced by criticism from other men. Many men admire a quality of liberality and generosity and consider them as “good”.
According to Machiavelli, if a prince develops a reputation for generosity, he will destroy the state. A quality of generosity requires a lot of wealth, which finishes all of the prince’s wealth. Eventually, the prince will be left with no other choice but to put heavy taxes on people in order to maintain his reputation and avoid him from becoming poor. (pg59) “a prince cannot use this virtue of liberality without damage to himself, if he is prudent he must not worry about the reputation of miser: because with time he will be considered even more liberal, when it is seen that because of his parsimony his income suffices him, that he can defend himself against whomever makes war on him, and that he can undertake enterprises without weighing down the people”. Ultimately, any prince who tries to change his reputation of generosity will be seen by people as a penny-pincher and develop a reputation of a miser. A prince who is a parsimonious, may be seen by people as a miser in he beginning, but at the end he will gain his reputation back because he will have enough money to protect himself from whomever makes war on him and complete his projects without heavily taxing the people. In the past, Pope Julius II, “the present king of France”, “the present king of Spain” all three of them believed in parsimony, which protected them from extraordinary expenses and accomplish many
things. Generosity, sympathy, merciful, are some characteristics that are usually admired by men. But a prince must be careful that he does not show too much sympathy or use mercy badly. If a prince is too sympathetic and does not properly punish unfaithful subjects, then he creates an environment which is not stable. Punishing the culprits is very necessary for a prince because it will help him to maintain his power and it does not harm the community but the individuals who commit crime. Being cruel is one of the characteristics that a price must have but a prince should also be careful about using his cruelty wisely and only for the benefit of the state. Machiavelli then throws a light on a subject whether a prince should be feared or loved. Preferably, a prince should be both feared and loved. It is not easy to force love, so if not both, it is much better and secured to be feared than to be loved because by nature, men, “are ungrateful, fickle, dissimulators, apt to flee peril, covetous of gain; and while you do them good, they are all yours, they offer you their blood, their things, their life, their children, as I said above, when need is far off; but when it draws near to you, they revolt.” If the danger is far away, men are willing risk everything for their prince. But is there is an actual danger, they turn their back against the prince. A bond of love can be broken easily when the difficult situation arises but fear of punishment usually works in every situation. Being feared is an important characteristic for a prince but a prince must be careful about using it careful and avoid being hatred. A prince must check if all the executions are properly justified or otherwise people will start feeling hatred towards him. A prince should never snatch the property and women of his subject. (pg-62)“men sooner forget the death of the father than they do the loss of patrimony.” Since, human nature is very greedy, men will forget the death of their father but confiscated property. If a prince must confiscate property, he must provide good reasons. In order to maintain his army, a prince needs to be cruel. Keeping an army on track and disciplined needs cruelty. Machiavelli tells that a prince who honor his words is generally praised by other men.
But some historic figures (ancient writers) and experiences indicate that a prince, who is cunning, crafty, and able to trick others is likely to achieve the most success. (pg65)“A prince is constrained by necessity to know well how to use the beast, among [the beasts] he must choose the fox and the lion; because the lion does not defend itself from traps, the fox does not defend itself from the wolves. One therefore needs to be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to dismay the wolves”). The two ways of fighting are by law or by force. Beasts acquire force naturally and men acquire laws naturally. In order to become a successful, prince must learn how to become half beast and half man. When a prince uses a force, he acts like a beast. A prince must to acquire qualities of two kinds of beasts (fox and lion) and become a fox in order to recognize traps and a lion to dismay the wolves. While dealing with people, a prince must master a technique of breaking his promises whenever needed or when he is in a disadvantage because of that promise. In any given situation, promises are not something that a prince should be worry about or rely, because men by nature are deceiving and dishonest. A prince should be able to deceive anyone whenever they put him on a disadvantage. However, a prince must be careful about how to become a fox in this case. Pope Alexander was a leader who mastered the art of
deceiving and he always found men whom he could do it. (67)“they are harmful, while appearing to have them is useful; like appearing piteous, faithful, humane, integral, religious, and [perhaps even] to be; while keeping one’s spirit predisposed so that, needing not to be those things, you might know how to change to be the contrary. A prince must know how to appear qualities of being trustworthy, kind, generous, humane etc. But possessing these qualities are harmful and not practice for the prince, as long as he acts to appear these qualities men will judge the prince only on the appliance and result. Prince should become evil to achieve his goal. It is practically impossible for a prince to live his whole life virtuously but appearing virtuous can him on a great advantage because if men believes the prince to be virtuous, it will help him to control his state easily and effectively. Naturally, men are easily impressed by appearances and results so, a prince must be able to become evil when it comes to the protection of his state because by nature human will forgive him as long as it is for the benefit of them.