Comparing Machiavelli´s The Prince And Thomas More's Utopia

Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince and Thomas More’s Utopia were written during a relatively similar time period in the early 1500s. Therefore, both Machiavelli and More’s main character, Raphael Hythloday, both have a lot of the same perspectives on human nature. They discuss the behavioral nature of kings as well as everyday people and outline the ways they conduct themselves. Essentially, both Machiavelli and Hythloday share the same views on human nature, mainly focusing on the fact that humans are naturally selfish people whose behavior is almost always driven by self-interest.
Raphael Hythloday starts off by generalizing the human nature of all kings as selfish individuals who strictly behave according to their own personal desires. He …show more content…
He advises his audience, kings/princes, to appear as if they are the guardian angel for their people but they, “must be a great liar and hypocrite” (Machiavelli, The Prince 48). Therefore, Machiavelli isn’t necessarily asking kings to change their natural behavior, but rather make their selfish behavior seem noble. It is always in people’s best interest to help themselves first, but if one can achieve that without other people noticing it, they are golden. Thus, everyone is naturally selfish, it is just a matter of some people being better at masking it than others. Therefore, Machiavelli knows that we always prefer to do what is better for ourselves. He says, “hatred may be earned by doing good just as much as by doing evil… a prince who wants to keep his state, often bound to do what is not good” (Machiavelli, The Prince 53). Here, Machiavelli recognizes the fact that sometimes our decisions won’t always please everyone, and that’s okay. He advises us to not always behave the way people want you to because sometimes the right thing to do is also the harder thing to do. This is similar to Hythloday’s point of view when it comes to thieves. He knows if they escape their punishment it is against the rules, but we cannot blame people for trying to survive, “They think that a crime clearly and deliberately attempted is as bad as one committed, and that failure should not confer advantages on a criminal who did all he could to succeed” (More, Utopia 74). He is trying to get people to understand that not all bad human behavior necessarily has bad intentions. Another point that Hythloday makes that Machiavelli also agrees on is that, “Fortune governs half of our actions” (Machiavelli, The Prince 67). Not to mention, Machiavelli capitalized the word “Fortune” even though it isn’t even the start of the sentence. This reveals his intention to emphasize the