The Qualities Of A Prince Rhetorical Analysis

Aristotle’s Rhetorical Appeals Aristotle came up with a persuasive pattern we see in media all over called, rhetorical appeals. Ethos, logos, and pathos are seen in various types of media, ads, magazines, and many more. In “The Qualities of a Prince” an excerpt by Niccolò Machiavelli, he informs us about how a prince is able to hold his title and position and how to maintain the power that he has over the people. He uses past experiences for examples on how to maintain power. In Capitalism: A Love Story by Michael Moore, he tries to incorporate the rhetorical appeals into his argument about power. In order to use these appeals he shows how the government has abused capitalism and gains the viewers trust by using persuasive patterns. Each
author uses specific examples of each of the rhetorical appeals in order to reach out to the audience in hidden ways. As seen in both works done by Machiavelli and Moore, both authors use ethos, logos and pathos to reach out to their audiences. Ethos is the ethics, reliability, and trust that both Machiavelli and Moore use to appeal to their audience.
Ethos being the first of the three rhetorical appeals is very important when trying to maintain your audience’s interest. Machiavelli does a great job of persuading his audience with the ethos appeal. An example Machiavelli uses to persuade his audience with ethos is found in “The Qualities of a Prince”, “If we examine this carefully, we shall see that he was more merciful than the Florentine people, who in order to avoid being considered cruel, allowed the destruction of Pistoia” (Machiavelli, 43). Ethos is presented here by showing an example from past history on how someone in power had messed up by being too merciful than the Florentine people. By using these examples Machiavelli uses ethos to show the past history and he is able to gain the trust from his audience because of the knowledge he demonstrates on different instances that have happened in other ruler’s pasts. Michael Moore is able to appeal to his audience by using ethos as well as
Machiavelli.
In Moore’s film, Capitalism: A Love Story gaining the trust and reliability from the audience is a big factor considering this topic has to do with government issues. In order for Moore to begin to gain the reliability from his audience he begins by informing people on what his topic is and what the issue means to him. After his audience is informed Moore uses ethos by going back to his hometown and showing how capitalism has effected even where he is from. Moore also visits two priests and a bishop of different churches (Capitalism: A love story). Moore is able to receive the trust and reliability of his audience by doing this. His audience can now see that Moore’s three sources are reliable because they come from different branches and different churches insuring that the information they are giving is indeed their faith and not just a personal opinion. Therefore Moore is able to receive the trust and reliability from his audience by using ethics and the rhetorical appeal of ethos. Although both authors use ethos pretty well, they also use the second of the three appeals, which is logos. Logos is the logic and reasoning behind each argument. In the excerpt by Machiavelli logos is used multiple times throughout the text. Majority of his writing is based on logos because Machiavelli is giving his opinion on how to logically be a good leader and maintain your power over the people. In each section Machiavelli gives examples of how the prince should be and then gives reasoning. Machiavelli writes, “And men are less hesitant about harming someone who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared because love is held together by a chain of obligation which, since men are sorry lot, is broken on every occasion in which their own self-interest is concerned; but fear is held together by a dread of punishment which will never abandon you” (Machiavelli, 44). This quote shows logos by representing that people are less likely to want to hurt someone who shows interest in them and seems to be doing something for the greater good of the people. In this sentence Machiavelli uses logic and reasoning by showing how men react to fear and generosity. This helps Machiavelli explain weather it is better to be feared or not.
Moore does a good job at this as well. By being able to give logic and reasoning to his audience he can appeal to them with the statistics he has about different issues relating to how he believes power is destroying our government. To incorporate logos into his film he uses statistics to give logic and reasoning to the audience as to why or how capitalism has affected certain people. In the film Moore uses statistics like, “65,000 kids falsely accused in trial” (Capitalism: A Love Story). This quote is supposed to reach out to the people and be an example of how capitalism affects all people, weather or not they understand what it even is. He explains that the system that all these children went through falsely accused them in order to get more money for the government. This supports Moore’s views on what capitalism is and how it is making people act out just to get money. The last appeal that both Moore and Machiavelli present is pathos.
This appeal draws the audience in with emotion and makes the audience feel empathy and sympathy for the issue. Machiavelli is able to get through to his audience using pathos by bringing up the issues of whether or not it is better to be loved or feared as well as despised and hated. These two examples and the way Machiavelli writes about them gives the audience a chance to think about what they would want if they were trying to be a ruler; also what they would want as a citizen (Machiavelli). By reaching out to his audience Machiavelli is able to emotionally persuade people that it is best for a ruler to chose whether he wants to be loved by his people so he can stay in power. The other idea Machiavelli brings up is to be feared in order to gain respect and to make sure that no one tries to overrule. In the film by Michael Moore the way he uses pathos is a different way than Machiavelli. Instead of giving the audience a chance to think about what they would want Moore shows horrible things that have happened to people because of capitalism. This includes the people in the beginning of the film who are being evicted from their homes that they have grown up in and have always lived in (Capitalism: A Love Story). While using pathos he also manages to slip in ethos by showing that two different people in opposite situations are going through the same thing because of capitalism. Moore shows the person in
Detroit who is maybe in their 40’s being evicted then shows a couple living on a farm who are older, maybe close to their 80’s. By showing the different people in different circumstances and at different ages this helps Moore show ethos by showing how the eviction emotionally effects different types of people at different ages. As seen in both works done by Machiavelli and Moore, both authors use ethos, logos and pathos to reach out to their audiences. By using the rhetorical appeals Moore and Machiavelli were able to persuade their audience purposely in hidden ways. These appeals are seen in many different works including, media, magazines, films, articles, etc. By using the rhetorical appeals Moore and Machiavelli managed to gain support from their audience who in the long run may help to do something or at least learned something from the topic each presented. These three are great ways to appeal to your audience to get them to think or feel a certain way.

Works Cited
Machiavelli, Niccolò. “The Qualities of the Prince”. N.C: N.P, 1532. Print.
Capitalism: A Love Story. Dir. Michael Moore. 2009. CD-ROM