In Machiavelli’s The Prince, he mentions countless themes and topics such as free will, cruelty, and virtue. Machiavelli believes that cruelty should be advised only in instances where it’s necessary. His views were more clearly shown in chapters 8 and 17. In chapter 8 he advises the prince against injuring his peasants on a regular basis, as this will make him loathed. Instead, he must only be cruel when it is absolutely essential to avert worse wrongdoing. In The Prince, it wasn’t a matter of whether cruelty was wrong or not it was a matter of whether it is used well or not. In Chapter 17 he mentions the instances where being cruel is necessary. In Chapter 17 he states, “You must know there are two ways of contesting, the one by the law, the other by force; the first method is proper to men, the second to beasts; but because the first is frequently not sufficient, it is necessary to have recourse to the second. Therefore it is necessary for a prince to understand how to avail himself of the beast and the man.” In this Machiavelli basically shows his view on cruelty, he believes that the amount and severity depend on the person and situation you are dealing with. In his metaphor when dealing with someone who is a snare you must act like a fox, and for those who are wolves, you must act like a lion. The more power the person has the more necessary cruelty is.