Utopia by Thomas More and The Prince by Machiavelli Essay

Utopia by Thomas More and The Prince by Machiavelli Thomas More’s Utopia and Machiavelli’s The Prince both concern themselves with the fundamental issues of how a society works and maintains itself. The goals behind the two works, however, differ considerably. The goal of Utopia is to illustrate the maintenance of an â€Å"ideal† society and the goal of The Prince is to instruct a prince, or ruler, on how to maintain his state. On the surface these two goals may seem similar but the difference lies in the way the authors handle the subject of power. As a manual, or handbook if you will, Prince treats power as a necessity, a goal, to be worked towards and maintained, almost at all costs. Utopia, a fantasy, treats†¦show more content†¦One might even say that the people are empowered, but the ideals that truly run the society, are empowered. More’s true focus does not even lie in power, but in the seeking of ideals. A second comparison that one could make is that the types of governments also have inherent qualities within them concerning power. In the Prince, the government is either a theoretical monarchy or dictatorship. Mach focuses on the manipulation of the people to main- tain power. The minor details do not matter. The importance lies in the fact that in a monarchy or dictatorship one person has the power in a society and all the rest serve only to obey him. Starkly different is More’s creation. His society is a true communist one and it could also be argued that it is also a democracy. Leaders are elected by the people, who make their own decisions freely. Nothing, not even power, is owned in that society by an individual. The power is distributed, thus empowerment. The capitalism of Machiavelli’s world, the idea that â€Å"the ends justify the means† strongly ties in with this contrast. That idea stated above correlates with the next point. In an idealistic society whose goals are justice and truth, it is impossible for one’s goal to be power. More’s idealistic attitude and Mach’s lack of one are both indicators of how they viewShow MoreRelatedSir Thomas More s Utopia And Niccolo Machiavelli s The Prince1454 Words   |  6 PagesSir Thomas More’s Utopia and Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince reflect the ideals of the Renaissance. Their reflections of the Renaissance are similar; however, their representations of the Renaissance also have distinct differences. The Renaissance or â€Å"rebirth† was a cultural movement that accompanied the passage of Europe from the Middle Ages to modern times. Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian civic humanist, historian, diplomat, philosopher, politician, and writer during the Renaissance. 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