The Courtier Sparknotes

Baldassare Castiglione, and influential writer of his time, created a book called The Courtier which laid out the foundations for the “social elite”. He describes qualities and actions that a man and woman must do to get to the top. An excerpt from the book shows the similarities and differences between the expectations of an elite man and woman.
Castiglione explains a male’s role first, showing that a man must take on a healthy lifestyle, exercising his body and mind to become known as a hard worker who is energetic. He must keep his reputation clean, steering away from bad situations and not disgracing himself by being a coward. Castiglione states that if a man takes on all of these traits and excels in them, he will be praised and will
While society has changed a lot, the foundations of becoming great have not. Castiglione’s work ties to many great leaders and historic figures in history. Just look at someone like George Washington, only by being bold, humble, and earning the praise and loyalty of his army was he able to successfully win the war and become such a well-respected person in society. The big names you hear on the news or TV all started from somewhere and got to where they were through hard work and relying on some (if not all) of the foundations that Castiglione states above in some way or another. There may be some people that you consider elite because of wealth in today’s society, but that is not all there is to it. Castiglione teaches you that to become a well-revered person, you must be successful in your work, your health, and your mind. Also, many people you see around you have some of the qualities stated in The Courtier. Castiglione shows how very few people reach the elite status because of these flaws. He states many times in his book how one trait leads to another and how a person must master all of the skills and traits stated. Another lesson you can learn from his book is that not all things come easy, you must work hard to master something so you can improve yourself and how others see you as a person. Taking the easy way out and slacking rarely ever makes you successful, and Castiglione