SOAPSS for Machiavelli's The Prince

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Subject:
The subject is how to be a good prince or how to become a good one. It is best to be loved and feared, but since it is difficult to achieve both, one should choose to be feared rather than loved. Fortune accounts for a half of everything that happens, while choice accounts for the other. (Be feared, but not hated)

Occasion: (historical background - personal, cultural, national)
Machiavelli lived in Florence all of his life. He lived in a tumultuous time when Popes commanded armies and the many city-states in Italy waged wars against, and lost to, the strong foreign powers of France, Italy, and the Holy Roman Empire. When Machiavelli became a clerk and ambassador to the Florentine government in 1494, they had expelled the Medici family from their 60-year reign. Machiavelli witnessed Cesare Borgia enlarge his territories in central Italy from 1502 to 1503 by using the tactics of strong emotional belief and cruelty. Between 1503 and 1506, Machiavelli commanded the Florentine militia and won several battles. He retired in 1513 from politics and began to write his theories of political philosophy.

Audience:
Machiavelli wrote The Prince for all princes, and all who aspired to be princes, to read. It also can be said that he wrote it for all people who were in the government or aspired to be in it someday.

Purpose:
The Prince was written so that princes, or future princes (or anyone else in the government), would know how to correctly rule their subjects through the use of such tactics as cruelty and torture. It was also written so that princes would know how to maintain that position by asserting their power over their subjects.

Speaker:
Machiavelli’s attitude is cynical and condescending towards the average human. He sides with the ruler of the people, the prince, rather than siding with the average citizen. Machiavelli considers humans to be incapable of forming a just government. Machiavelli sponsors acts against humanity such as cruelty and torture to maintain stability in the prince’s principality.

Style:
Machiavelli uses complex style. He includes several examples to justify his points, known as anecdotes. He uses long sentences and complex syntax to expound his theories. He switches perspectives numerous times. In third person, he writes about how the struggle between politics and ethics. In second person, he writes about what you, the reader, should do. In first person, he writes about his own personal opinions and experiences. (Verbose + convoluted, in order to sound more knowledgeable so as to make his argument more effective)

Machiavellian - "the ends justify the means"
Thesis - subject (what you're writing about) - attitude (what you're saying about that) - focus (specific angle or perspective being used to prove argument)