Discuss the relation between Hobbes view of human nature and his account of the origin, character and functions of the State.

Hobbes's belief that human nature is inherently selfish
and prone to brutality informs his vision of what the state should be like.  Because we
are naturally "bad," Hobbes believes that we need to totally subjugate ourselves to the
state so that it may protect us from our evil natures (and those of our fellow human
beings).

Hobbes argues that life in the state of nature is
chaotic.  It is the war of each against all.  If we are to avoid this fate, we have to
voluntarily submit to an absolutist state.  We have to allow the state to have complete
control over us so that it can ensure that we will not revert to the state of nature. 
As the link below tells us,

readability="9">

In Hobbes’s view, stability could be achieved
only where sovereignty was undivided and absolute. Otherwise civil authority would come
undone, and the brutishness of the state of nature would reassert
itself.