As with many diseases of the mind, deterioration happens slowly, over time. William Shakespeare, in Macbeth, shows how mental health can worsen gradually, and it goes so far that Macbeth deteriorates to a point near insanity. In one instance, Macbeth’s mind makes him reckon with what he’s done by conjuring an image of Banquo’s ghost. This clip of gameplay from Fortnite relates Shakespeare's play to modern-day technology. In which, the health of the character represents the decline of Macbeth’s psyche, and the storm represents his surroundings and his own self-destruction.
Most think that this deterioration all start with the killing of Duncan. In reality, this decline starts just before the murder, and we can see this in Act 2, Scene 1, especially during his monologue toward the end of the scene. After this monologue, Macbeth is never the same. His own thoughts and actions drive him crazy :
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat oppressèd brain? (II, i)
This famous “dagger” monologue forewarns the audience for what’s to come for Macbeth, which is not just murder, but insanity as well. At this stage, Macbeth enters the metaphorical “storm.”
This worsening of Macbeth’s mind is shown especially well in the scene with Banquo’s ghost. In the clip, the character uses bandages multiple times to try to counteract or ignore the “storm.” However, it cannot be ignored. In the play, something similar occurs, in that, Macbeth holds a dinner in an attempt to keep up his appearance and maintain a sense of regularity in his life, which has otherwise been turned upside down. This turns out to be impossible, as the ghost of Banquo enters and wreaks havoc on his mind and the dinner as a whole. Not only the other characters in the play, but the audience as well, understand Macbeth’s mental state by how he speaks to Banquo’s ghost, which no one else can see:
[Macbeth to Banquo’s Ghost] ...Lo, how say you?
Why, what care I, if thou canst nod, speak too?
If charnel houses and our graves must send
Those that we bury back, our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites.
[Lady Macbeth speaks to Macbeth] What, quite unmanned in folly? (III, iv)
Here, Shakespeare shows the audience, first-hand, Macbeth’s madness that continues to develop throughout the play.
A third instance in which Macbeth’s mental decline shows itself in plain sight comes when he tries to reason with the three weird sisters. No one can control what the three witches do or what they proclaim in their prophecies, so when Macbeth begins to believe that he can do so, it is a sign that he is grasping at straws to get back to the real world, where he can feel safe and secure. However, for Macbeth, getting out of his own way is harder than it may have originally seemed. One can even see the craziness of Macbeth by how he approaches the weird sisters, not with love, nor down on his knees begging, instead he thinks he can force out of them what he wants: “How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags? / What is’t you do? ... I conjure you, by that which you profess / (Howe’er you come to know it), answer me” (IV, i). Although it may seem like confidence, one can see through Macbeth’s charade, and see nervousness and insecurity building up inside of him - this building started with the murder of Duncan.
The clip from Fortnite mimics the play’s events incredibly well. First, after finding a gun (or a motive to kill Duncan), the character in the game (Macbeth) stealthily kills the player that was encountered in the swamp (or the king). Next, a brief period of happiness ensues for both the player and Macbeth - in Macbeth’s case, he is coronated and can enjoy the life as the new king. However, following that, the storm (or insanity) envelops the player, seeing this he makes a mad dash for the zone (or for Macbeth, regularity). Along the way, the character tries to heal himself with bandages (as Macbeth tries to help himself out of his state of madness), but ultimately ends up falling short, as he dies before reaching the zone (Macbeth falls short when the coup finally comes to his castle and he is slain). But, just before he dies, the player waves goodbye, just like how Macbeth, when in the final throes of his battle with Macduff, says, “...enough!” (V, vii).
When watching Macbeth, Shakespeare’s masterful writing makes the audience feel as if they are going insane along with Macbeth. However, today, younger generations have trouble relating to Shakespearean works because of the language used. Consequently, we can look for other ways to help them relate to Shakespeare and his plays. It can even come from a place that no one would expect - modern-day technologies, like video-games. Fortnite immerses a player that can make one have a similar experience to that of a Shakespearean character, like Macbeth. But, Fortnite is a helpful platform to use to show how versatile Shakespeare’s works are. Students are lectured to all the time about how important reading Shakespeare is, how he created so many words, and this and that, so, when a student can relate a work like Macbeth to video games, such as Fortnite, Call of Duty, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (or PUBG), or Minecraft, there’s a new sense of appreciation. Rather than just being told how far-reaching Shakespeare is, the student can experiences it instead, in a way that is contemporary to them.
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