The Prince Written by Niccolò Machiavelli

The Prince written by Niccolò Machiavelli, a great Florentine political philosopher is his attempt to lay out certain methods to secure and maintain political power; he dedicated this guide to the Magnificent Lorenzo deˈ Medici, who was the ruler of Florence during the time the book was written. The book written in primarily analytical covers various types of principalities and princes and what the Prince should do to maintain power over the state. Machiavelli wrote The Prince during the Renaissance.

The main purpose of the book is what a ruler needs to do to maintain political power while being attacked by foreign powers. The thesis in the book stated in the introduction is "The immediate practical purpose of The Prince radically original treatment of crucial philosophical and political issues continues to attract new readers, many of whom are often unaware of any practical political goal Machiavelli might have intended in his argument." The central themes that were I noticed while reading this book was the statesmanship and warcraft; goodwill and hatred; virtue and fortune. The themes were often stated throughout the book with statesmanship and warcraft, Machiavelli stated on page 43 that "where good armies exist there must be good laws." During the freewill and hatred, stated on page 62 "the prince should concentrate upon avoiding those things that make him hated and contemptible." Virtue and fortune were often a big issue in the book; Machiavelli says that a prince should have more virtue than base his power on fortune. The conclusion that is brought by Machiavelli is the fact that if a prince follows his suggests he will be able to maintain rule through all costs. The most important message that Machiavelli tried to get across is that fortune can take control over a man's thoughts and a man's virtue is the only thing that can keep a man on the right track and not fall through from fortune.

The most important character that I found in this book was Machiavelli himself. It was amazing on how much he studied the successes and failures of the rulers in the Roman Empire. He used many examples to explain his thoughts to the fullest and way he thought how a ruler could maintain power. He stressed on the fact that having a strong army and support from the people and the army was important. He used examples like Alexander Severus, who was raised by his mother and was considered very feminine by his troops, was vulnerable to attack. Machiavelli states that if a ruler was vulnerable it was easy for them to being attack by foreign armies and killed even if they are a powerful ruler.

Machiavelli's The Prince gave certain standards of what it took to be a Machiavellian. There are many people that relate to these standards. One that comes to mind takes place in World War II with Hitler. Hitler had many characteristics as a Machiavellian such as being both loved and feared, he maintained