Luong 1 Thinh Luong Expository Writing - LIB 111 Professor Gorman 20 September 2011 The Qualities of the Prince

by Machiavelli In The Qualities of the Prince, Machiavelli explains different characteristics and qualities that a prince must be entitled to. First of all, the prince has a duty of maintaining his concerns with war because with arms and the best military powers, a ruler will always be in control of everything. According to Machiavelli, a prince without knowledge about military matters is unable to have his soldiers respect and follow his orders neither can he rely on them (Machiavelli 40). The prince has to focus on the thought of war even when it is peacetime, and this can be done in two ways: one by action, the other by the mind (Machiavelli 40). The former way not only includes maintaining order and getting his army well-trained, but also involves travelling and understanding the geography of different places in the country since with the knowledge and experience of the terrain, one can easily comprehend the characteristics of any other terrain that is necessary to explore for the first time; (Machiavelli 40). For the latter, the prince must follow the great examples of all the victorious rulers as well as analyze the mistakes of the doomed ones in history so that he can avoid all the errors that had been made by previous rulers and prepare himself to be a great ruler. Second of all, the prince has to know exactly what he is doing at the right place and at the right time since every action of his will always be judged by his people. He has to understand well the nature of those who are watching him and know how to cover the vices that will ruin his reputation. In addition, generosity is an important thing for a prince to build a good image; however, he should know that if he is generous to everyone, he will eventually lose his financial ability to support each of his citizens. This

Luong 2 means that he has to be called a miser, but it bears no importance since it is one of those vices that permits him to rule (Machiavelli 44). In other words, at the end of the day, it is worth being called a miser for the prince can maintain his power by not being too generous but avoiding being hated. It is also necessary for the prince to be considered cruel because this is how he can force his citizens to create a well-ordered society. Machiavelli mentions that it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking for ones love for the king is not powerful enough to keep itself from being destroyed by self-interest whereas ones fear bounded by a dread of punishment can prevent him or her from harming the king. Nevertheless, the prince should only be feared in such a way that would not create hatred so that revolts and chaos would not occur, and that is only made possible by which he never lays his hands on the property and the women of his citizens and his subjects (Machiavelli 46). There are qualities that the prince is expected to have such as being merciful, faithful, humane, forthright, religious (Machiavelli 49) but it does not mean that he has to be entitled to these qualities at all times. For example, as mentioned above, he cannot be generous to everyone. However, the prince must make sure that he has all those qualities in the eyes of his citizens. As mentioned earlier, the prince has to know who his audience is and manage the course of his actions accordingly so that he will not be hated by his people. The concept of avoiding hatred is revisited again around the end of this essay by Machiavelli. This concept is very significant for the prince in dealing with the most important things such as external affairs or foreign relations and internal affairs of his own state. The prince can always solve any issues of the former with his well-trained army. Once those external issues are at ease, internal affairs as mentioned by Machiavelli will take care of themselves if again the prince knows how to avoid being hated (Machiavelli 50). Surely, the prince can never avoid being hated by some particular people who can cause a conspiracy believing that he will satisfy the people by killing the prince (Machiavelli 51). However, since the prince know how not to be hated by a massive group of people, it can never be possible for the conspirator to convince others to go against the prince and the rebel may even cause them

Luong 3 go against him. Therefore, he definitely cannot escape different kinds of troubles if the king is feared but not hated by his citizens. All in all, the prince must know who is watching him, be good in the eyes of his audience, be feared in such a way that hatred toward him does not exist.

Luong 4 Work Cited Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Qualities of the Prince. A World of Ideas. Lee A. Jacobus. Eighth Edition. Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. 39-52