Shakespeare Ideal King "Love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, is it far safer to be feared than loved"(Machiavelli). Throughout Niccolo Machiavelli 's "The Prince" and Sun Tzu 's "The Art of War," they go in detail discussing what a ruler should know, how to behave, and what the most important characteristic a ruler can have. Another great well Known author is William Shakespeare, whom constantly in his plays shows what how he thinks the ideal ruler should act. The two plays that show his opinion of a perfect leader the best are Macbeth and Hamlet. If one should follow the advice given in Machiavelli 's "The Prince" and Tzu 's "The Art of War" they should be feared, intelligent, and be ruthless yet not hated.
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In Shakespeare 's play "Macbeth" the main character, Macbeth becomes King of Scotland by murdering King Duncan. In the play, Macbeth is portrayed as an ignorant king who murders anyone that could cause trouble and by killing so many people and their families, Macbeth is hated and feared. For these reasons Macbeth ends up being a terrible leader and eventually dies. This could be seen as what Shakespeare thinks of an ideal ruler, he does not think a leader should be hated, yet since loving King Duncan dies so quickly in the book Shakespeare does not think a king should be loved either. Among the many things he does a prime example of something Macbeth does that instantly grants him infamy among his people is in act IV scene 3 he "savagely slaughtered" the wife and children of Macduff. Additionally Macbeth can be seen as unintelligent when he kills the guards of King Duncan. He kills the guards out of impulse and right away Ross says "Alas, the day! What good could they pretend?"(2.4. 22-23). Instead of leaving the guards passed out drunk he kills them so they can not testify but then everyone realizes that they had no motive to kill the king. This all builds up to where everyone begins to dislike Macbeth. This can be seen when Young Siward hears Macbeth 's name he says how "The devil himself could not pronounce a title More hateful to mine ear"(V.7. 10-11). In fact he is even called an, "abhorrèd tyrant"(V.7. 10) by Siward as well. Macbeth kills many people, acts on impulse, and is hated by his people, yet in "Hamlet," the main character, Hamlet is portrayed as a intelligent man who "had he been put on, to have proved most royal; and for his passage the soldier 's music and the rite of was speak loudly for him"(V.2.
In Shakespeare 's play "Macbeth" the main character, Macbeth becomes King of Scotland by murdering King Duncan. In the play, Macbeth is portrayed as an ignorant king who murders anyone that could cause trouble and by killing so many people and their families, Macbeth is hated and feared. For these reasons Macbeth ends up being a terrible leader and eventually dies. This could be seen as what Shakespeare thinks of an ideal ruler, he does not think a leader should be hated, yet since loving King Duncan dies so quickly in the book Shakespeare does not think a king should be loved either. Among the many things he does a prime example of something Macbeth does that instantly grants him infamy among his people is in act IV scene 3 he "savagely slaughtered" the wife and children of Macduff. Additionally Macbeth can be seen as unintelligent when he kills the guards of King Duncan. He kills the guards out of impulse and right away Ross says "Alas, the day! What good could they pretend?"(2.4. 22-23). Instead of leaving the guards passed out drunk he kills them so they can not testify but then everyone realizes that they had no motive to kill the king. This all builds up to where everyone begins to dislike Macbeth. This can be seen when Young Siward hears Macbeth 's name he says how "The devil himself could not pronounce a title More hateful to mine ear"(V.7. 10-11). In fact he is even called an, "abhorrèd tyrant"(V.7. 10) by Siward as well. Macbeth kills many people, acts on impulse, and is hated by his people, yet in "Hamlet," the main character, Hamlet is portrayed as a intelligent man who "had he been put on, to have proved most royal; and for his passage the soldier 's music and the rite of was speak loudly for him"(V.2.