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In Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince translated by William J. Connell there are two main ideas that constantly arise in the book.These ideas are virtue and fortune. Professor Van Den Abbeele described virtue in lecture as "... the quality of being a ... man or male in the gendered sense, as opposed to the generic human ..." and also described as"... valor, courage, character, strength, pride, attributes very different from the Christian idea of virtue as moral goodness". While he described fortune as "a gendered and misogynist stereotype" or "lady luck" he also brought up in lecture a line from The Prince describing fortune as "a lady" (199). The ideas are described as very polar; virtue is described as more masculine and fortune more feminine. This tells the readers to notice that there is a distinction between the two ideas, which further proves that one should not mistake fortune for virtue and vice versa. It seems that he represents fortune as masculine due to the fact that during his time masculinity was deemed positively. Also fortune is represented as a woman due to the fact that in many cases fortune is passed down by one's family which could be deemed as more of a motherly connection.
Do virtue and fortune not work in harmony with one another? Machiavelli speaks about how virtue is more important than fortune as seen in line, “... becoming a prince from being a private man- presupposes either virtue or fortune, it appears that one or the other of these two things in part mitigates many difficulties; nonetheless, he who has relied less on fortune has kept more of what he has acquired.” (55). Machiavelli describes fortune as nothing without virtue. Virtue works as the skill that a person has or the strength that the person has to take action or succeed. Fortune on the other hand is what a person is born into and the opportunities one has to use their virtue. Machiavelli argues that if a person has fortune they must work harder to maintain their power while if one has virtue maintaining power will be less difficult. Although Machiavelli's ideas were true in the 16th century these notions are very different from today's society.
Does this apply in today's society? Is virtue valued more than fortune in the 21st century? People seem to value the idea of making one's own luck believing that anything is possible if they are hard-working but this is not possible in all cases. In many cases one needs fortune in order to follow one's dreams. Many people do not have the fortune or the luck to be born into a family that can provide the necessary items to excel in the world. For example many people in poor families cannot provide money to send their child to college and their child must also work in order to provide for the family. In some cases this fortune is not present due to the laws dictated by the government the person lives under. For example in Iran many woman want to have an education but they are very limited in what they can study. This restriction causes a woman who wants to become a doctor to be limited in her virtue or skills that she may use. Although Machiavelli valued virtue over fortune it is seen that in today's society that fortune is more applicable because if one does not have fortune they will not have the opportunity to use their virtue.
