To what extent does The Jew of Malta represent Machiavelli’s political ideas?
The Jew of Malta opens with the ghost of Niccolò Machiavelli so we won’t be surprised to find many of his political ideas reflected in the play.
First, Machiavelli says that ,for rulers, being moral is doing what you have to do for your kingdom. He believes that violence can be used to stop other violence from happening, to get safety, honor, fulfillment, and all kinds of treats; therefore, ends justify the means. Sure, it might be mean and immoral, but the ruler does not need morals to be great at politics. And as we see in The Jew of Malta, for some characters, like Ferneze, deceit is mostly a means to an end, he's pretty consistently pushing for a stable and peaceful Malta, he shamelessly exploits the minority Jewish population, breaks his promise to Calymath, betrays Barabas, and then ransoms Calymath to extort the Turkish Sultan. Ultimately, Ferneze does indeed regain control of Malta, finish off Barabas, and make a pretty solid plan to rebuild the city.
Second, for Machiavelli, it's fine to break promises if keeping them is disadvantageous. In the play, Ferneze is clearly on board with this one: he swears that he'll have ten years of tribute money ready for Calymath by the end of the month, but the minute the Spanish navy offers to help him out, he goes back on his promise and tells Calymath to suit up for a siege.
Finally, Machiavelli advices that the ruler had better look religious, even if he’s not. Machiavelli saw that hypocrisy was fine and dandy as long as it kept the ruler in power. This idea is reflected in the play ;Ferneze is definitely prepared to publically espouse Christian values (and, more importantly, Christian prejudices) to get what he wants. People die left and right in the play, but one of the nastiest scenes is still that first bit where Ferneze is telling everyone how righteous he's being by confiscating the Jews' wealth. He, of course, just needs their money because he's gotten himself into a bad situation with the Turks, but the way he tells it you'd think God had personally asked Ferneze to take Barabas's property.
Grammar and spelling errors:
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Suggestion:
First, Machiavelli says that ,for rulers...
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First, Machiavelli says that ,for rulers, being moral is doing what yo...
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...mean and immoral, but the ruler does not need morals to be great at politics. And...
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Line 1, column 482, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
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Suggestion: he's
...ze, deceit is mostly a means to an end, hes pretty consistently pushing for a stabl...
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Line 3, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
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...tty solid plan to rebuild the city. Second, for Machiavelli, its fine to bre...
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Line 3, column 165, Rule ID: HELL[1]
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... on board with this one: he swears that hell have ten years of tribute money ready f...
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Line 5, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
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...lls Calymath to suit up for a siege. Finally, Machiavelli advices that the ru...
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Line 5, column 503, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
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...rneze is telling everyone how righteous hes being by confiscating the Jews wealth. ...
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... course, just needs their money because hes gotten himself into a bad situation wit...
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Suggestion: you'd
...with the Turks, but the way he tells it youd think God had personally asked Ferneze ...
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, first, if, look, second, so, still, then, therefore, of course
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 13.1623246493 106% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 3.0 7.85571142285 38% => OK
Conjunction : 14.0 10.4138276553 134% => OK
Relative clauses : 7.0 7.30460921844 96% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 24.0651302605 116% => OK
Preposition: 40.0 41.998997996 95% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 8.3376753507 48% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1615.0 1615.20841683 100% => OK
No of words: 330.0 315.596192385 105% => OK
Chars per words: 4.89393939394 5.12529762239 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.26214759535 4.20363070211 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.88012887427 2.80592935109 103% => OK
Unique words: 214.0 176.041082164 122% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.648484848485 0.561755894193 115% => OK
syllable_count: 491.4 506.74238477 97% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.60771543086 93% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 5.43587174349 92% => OK
Article: 0.0 2.52805611222 0% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 2.10420841683 48% => OK
Conjunction: 8.0 0.809619238477 988% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 4.0 4.76152304609 84% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 16.0721442886 75% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 27.0 20.2975951904 133% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 75.9402177154 49.4020404114 154% => OK
Chars per sentence: 134.583333333 106.682146367 126% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.5 20.7667163134 132% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.33333333333 7.06120827912 90% => OK
Paragraphs: 3.0 4.38176352705 68% => More paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 10.0 5.01903807615 199% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 8.67935871743 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 3.9879759519 50% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 3.4128256513 59% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.179238518151 0.244688304435 73% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0617849105148 0.084324248473 73% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0279431713724 0.0667982634062 42% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.109175934366 0.151304729494 72% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0394631934877 0.056905535591 69% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.4 13.0946893788 118% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 52.53 50.2224549098 105% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.44779559118 118% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.6 11.3001002004 112% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.38 12.4159519038 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.66 8.58950901804 101% => OK
difficult_words: 77.0 78.4519038076 98% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 9.78957915832 138% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 10.1190380762 126% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 10.7795591182 121% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Minimum four paragraphs wanted.
Rates: 56.1797752809 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.33 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.