Power And Leadership In Machiavelli's The Prince

When you think about leadership, what kind of a person do you envision? What processes do you think lead to obtaining high positions? Power and leadership have definitely evolved over the years and the kind of leaders that are ideal in a society have changed with it. Machiavelli’s The Prince gives insight into the kind of work it takes to come into power around the 16th century. His advice is brutally honest and void of sympathy. The ideas presented provide a guide to how a prince is to manage power and rule in a successful way. A ruler who can be compared to the examples that Machiavelli provides is Macbeth in Shakespeare's Macbeth. He was able to acquire the throne and maintain power by embodying Machiavelli’s ideal qualities that a prince

He realizes that an ideal prince should be both, but points out that, “love and fear can hardly exist together” (43). He goes on to say that if a choice had to be made, it is better to be feared. Machiavelli justifies this conclusion by explaining that, “men are fickle, false [...] greedy of gain, devoted to you for a while [...] but in the hour of need they turn against you” (43-44). In Macbeth, King Duncan could be described as having this flaw; the flaw of being too loved. Macbeth is a clear example of why a smart prince should be weary of how loved he is by the people around him. Macbeth was described as loyal, and fought for the king, but upon hearing his future from the witches, he became convinced and fixated on the idea of taking Duncan’s

Throughout Macbeth, it’s apparent that Macbeth went through internal struggles. He grappled with finding the courage to commit murder and go against his own moral beliefs. He assumed the throne a powerful man but lost himself in the chaos of it all. He at one point in time possessed the ideal traits that Machiavelli describes in an ideal prince, but he lacked the willpower to maintain these qualities and let fear and guilt lead him to the loss of his