English Literature And Theory This blog contains the explanation of various critical theories that provide a new insight to view literature and interpretation of various literary texts.

"The Qualities of the Prince" is an extract from "The Prince (1513)" written by a 16th century political scientist, writer, historian and military expert Nicollo Machiavelli. The extract is a practical guide for ruling. This is equally influential today as it was in Machiavelli's time. Like it's message(advice), the text is brilliant in use of rhetorical strategies. Machiavelli, a powerful writer was three rhetorical strategies which I will contend to discuss in following paragraphs.

The first and the most beautiful strategy of Machiavelli is "Announcement of his primary point". In this writing, he usually refers to the historical account to support his idea; then he explains why his idea is the best one by appealing to both common sense and historical experience. For an instance: Machiavelli claims that a prince or any other men expert at military matters can win the state and the state authority. To support this idea, he refers to Francesco Sforza, who became Duke of Milan for being expert in military affairs. Similarly Machiavelli says that the man who busies himself during peace time in physical training and mental gymnastic is likely to win wars. To support this Machiavelli presents historical evidences that Alexander-The Great, Caesar and Scipio were successful in different wars by mind during peace time. In some cases, in which Machiavelli suspects that reader will not share his views whole-heartedly. He suggests an alternate argument and explains why it is wrong. This is a very forceful way of Machiavelli in presenting his ideas. He gives an a presenting his ideas. He gives an appearance of fairness and thoroughness in his presentation.

Another notable rhetorical device Machiavelli applies in his writing is discussion of opposites including both sides of an issue. From the very beginning, he makes number of oppositions, the art of a war and the art of life, generosity and miserliness, liberty and stinginess, the fox and the lion and so on. This method is very simple in itself but is forceful and important because it employs one of the basic techniques of rhetoric- the topic of comparison.

One of the three rhetorical devices Machiavelli uses in " The Qualities of the Prince " is aphorism. The aphorism is a saying which has been accepted as truth. Machiavelli tells us to be feared is much safer than to be loved; any men who tries to do good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Such definite statement has several important qualities. One is that they are pithy- they seem to say a great message in a few words. Another quality is that they appear to contain great deal of wisdom. Machiavelli makes ample use of such statements with certainty and spontaneity that help the audience be convinced in his principles. His statements are so powerful that we accept them readily without being skeptical in his idea.

In a nutshell, Machiavelli's use of language has appearance of truth that is most likely to be accepted by readers because of expert fusion of afore stated three rhetorical devices- Announcement of Primary Point, Discussion of Opposites and The Use of Aphorisms. These rhetorical devices make Machiavelli's expression lucid (clear), plain and spontaneous and convincing as well as reliable and effective.