Chew on this for a spell...

In discussions and debates over William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, one controversial issue that has come up time and time again has been whether or not Shakespeare had intended to allude towards the colonization of British territories in India, or whether he was writing plays for the sheer entertainment and large amount of personal giggles involved. On the one hand, sane arguments are made by people, such as George Will, who support the truth behind Shakespeare’s writings with class and respect. On the other hand, there are blithering fools, like Stephen Greenblatt, who contend that Shakespeare was an activist trying to make a statement through his writings and “high social stature”, which is widely know to be inexistent. Then, there are other even bigger ninnies who believe that Shakespeare didn’t even right most of the plays that he is credited to, but I wont even get started on this. My own view in the matter is more along the lines of George Will. I believe that Shakespeare was a simple man just trying to put food on his family’s plate and entertain the country side one play at a time, not that he was some liberal Quaker bent on improving society with the flick of a pen across the page.

In discussions over this controversial topic, the traditional view is very similar to mine in that college professors are reading too deeply into things such as this and are distorting the original purpose and thought behind literature. However, there may be other ways to think about this text. For one thing, there is a slight coincidence between the characters in this play and what was going on in the world at the time; however, these coincidences are too likely to have occurred simultaneously without affecting each other to base such a bold argument off of. There are too many factors standing in the way of the contrary arguments that easily discredit any further discussion from the opposition altogether. In all, opposition to tradition in this case does not pay off well. In fact, it doesn’t pay off at all!