The main characteristics that are given for a well-rounded man in ‘l’uoma universal’ are based on a man having and possessing a wide range of interest. This is a man who can study philosophy and art at the same time being interested in engineering and also political studies. This man is also characterized by poetry and being a warrior at the same time. It is also evidence through the text that a man should be well built, that is being physically strong, both health-wise and physically and should be agile (Duiker, & Spielvogel, 2008). Also according to Castiglione, a well rounded man is believed to have style while handling any situation, have manly characteristics, loyal and courageous. In the courtier, he has been described by Castiglione as, “presents everything said and done as something brought about without laboriousness and almost without giving it any thought,” (Castiglione, 2011).
Creating a survey that was asking for individual opinions based on the above characteristics. The main leading answer was to agree or disagree with the characteristics that are posed in ‘l’uoma universal’ characteristics of a gentleman. The survey was done on a gender based criteria whereby, five ladies and five gentlemen aged 20 to 40 years were interviewed. They were to respond whether this was an appropriate description of today’s gentleman.
According to the response given from the ten individuals interviewed, eight out the ten of the individuals agreed with notion that a man should carry himself with style, of which five were ladies while three were men. Nine out the ten agreed that a man should be manly and exhibit any feminism characteristic of which five were ladies and four were men. Also out of ten nine agreed on the idea that a gentleman should be able to seize advantages while found in disagreements of which five were man while four ladies. Also nine out of the ten individuals agreed on the notion that courage and strength should be part of a gentleman’s characteristic which had the same outcome with seizing of opportunities. Loyalty was the key issue that all greed that should be a characteristic of a gentleman.
Handsomeness was one of the issues that all the ladies and gentlemen found to be a silly argument. I also found it weird for all the men to have agreed that loyalty was a true characteristic of a gentleman in today’s world. This is based on the fact that, there are increasing cases of disloyalty in today’s relationships.
I do not totally agree with the characteristics that have been portrayed of a man by Castiglione. While his perception of a gentleman is one born in a particular family, I insist that a gentleman is an individual who acts in a certain appreciated manner. Most of the characteristics are achieved through training and not through birth as posed by Castiglione. While strength and bravery should be part of a man, warfare should not be part of the characteristic (Ghiberti, 2007). Any individual can be achieving being a gentleman through training and not by birth.
Reference
Duiker, W. J., & Spielvogel, J. J. (2008). The essential world history. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Castiglione, B. (2003). The book of the courtier. Mineola, N.Y: Dover Publications.
Ghiberti, L., Radke, G. M., Butterfield, A., & High Museum of Art (Atlanta, Ga.). (2007). The Gates of paradise: Lorenzo Ghiberti's Renaissance masterpiece : [High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, April 28 - July 15, 2007 ; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, July 28 - October 13, 2007 ; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, October 30, 2007 - January 13, 2008]. Harvard [u.a.: Yale Univ. Press.
