Leadership In Machiavelli's La Mandragola

Imagine a leader who will do anything imaginable to keep power over their subjects no matter how evil it might be? A few leaders probably came to mind, while it may seem like these leaders are ruthless to Niccolo Machiavelli these leaders are the perfect candidates for ruler ship. Machiavelli lies all the qualities he believes and effective leader should possess in his book The Prince. However, The Prince is not Machiavelli’s only piece of literature that describes the effective prince, this concept also comes up in his play La Mandragola which follows the story of Callimaco trying to conquer a beautiful married woman, Lucrezia. Controversy arises amongst readers over which character in the play is meant the be the true prince of the story. While there are many different theories the two biggest ones are that Callimaco is the true prince of the play, or that Lucrezia is the effective prince Machiavelli speaks of. Although it can …show more content…
When addressing whether it is better to be feared or loved Machiavelli says, “And men have less hesitation to offend someone who makes himself loved than feared.” (Machiavelli 1998, 66) Machiavelli says that in order to keep the people under the control of the prince, he needs to make them fear him so that way they are too afraid to speak out against him. This applies to Mandragola because it is made known that Lucrezia’s servants are terrifies of her because she is bossy and wants things done her way (Machiavelli 1981). This means that Lucrezia makes herself feared by her servants so they will listen to her and do things how she wants them to first time. Although it can be said that this is a minor detail and it is not fit to prove that Lucrezia is the true prince, it is a small illustration to prove that Lucrezia is fit for ruler ship. She is not afraid to make herself feared to get what she wants which is what Machiavelli urges princes to