Macnite

Fortnite, the largest battle royale game in the world, is surprisingly similar to Macbeth, a play that was first performed in 1606. Fortnite has affected the lives of so many people, including my brother, and has gone from just a game into an addiction. Although both Macbeth and Fortnite are filled with action, throughout this piece we will explore the similarities of certain characters in Macbeth to my brother and how they face similar challenges.

In order to fully comprehend the comparison of Macbeth and Fortnite, you must first look at the plotline of Macbeth. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was seen as a hero that could do no harm, but as the plot progressed we begin to see Macbeth’s true colors after hearing what the witches predicted -- that he would be the king. After hearing these words, he began to do anything and everything in his power to reach this goal. He knew that one of the obstacles that he would have overcome would be to kill Duncan, and so he did. Eventually, by the end of the play, his body is overcome by all the guilt of his past actions and ended up being killed by Macduff.

When my brother first began playing Fortnite he was automatically hooked by the nonstop action of the game. In the beginning, he was driven by the fact that he never got a Victory Royale; however, after getting his first Victory Royale, he was thrown into the madness of always wanting more. Whether it was wanting more solo Victory Royales or wanting more kills in each game; each goal he set, he would spend hours and hours until reaching this end goal. Similarly, Macbeth has been thrown into the madness and addicted to the idea of getting the throne. As we see throughout the play, Macbeth lets nothing get in the way of what he wants to achieve. “That is a step on which/I must fall down or o’er leap/For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fire!/ Let not light see my black and deep/ desires” (Act 1 scene 4). This is one of the first set of lines where we see this evil side of Macbeth. When Macbeth says “I must fall down or o’er leap,” he is referring to Duncan and is saying that he must either give up or kill him because if he does not he will not get the throne. And, when Macbeth says, “Let not light see my black and deep” what he is saying that although he will be doing and thinking all these terrible things, he does not want anyone to see them. However before he said this, Lady Macbeth says to him, “Yet do I fear thy nature;/It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness/To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,/Art not without ambition, but without/The illness should attend it”(Act 1 scene 5). What she is trying to say is that she fears that he does not have what it takes to be king; he is too kind and not fierce enough. As we can tell from comparing these two excerpts from the play, Macbeth is a changed man.In just one scene, Lady Macbeth goes from telling Macbeth that he does not have what it takes to be king, to him saying that in order to become king he must kill Duncan, and he is willing to go to that extent to take hold of the throne. As you can see, whether it is Macbeth killing people, or my brother spending countless hours a day playing Fortnite, they both are addicted to this idea of achieving their end goals and letting nothing get in the way of that.

When comparing the characters in Macbeth, my brother can be seen as the Macbeth, while my cousin/his friends can be seen as the Lady Macbeth. See, before my brother started playing Fortnite his whole mindset was different; he had motivation in not only school but sports. His first thought when he came home would be to do his homework, then practice hockey, and maybe play an hour at most of video games. However, now his first thought is to play Fortnite. It is like his whole life revolves around this game and if he does not play it he starts to panic a little. When I asked him what made him first begin to play, he said: “My cousin was the first person to pressure me into playing, then after that, all my friends were always playing and I kind of fell into this addiction without even realizing.” What is even crazier, is that when he is not playing Fortnite, or doing something that is productive, he is watching videos of other people playing Fortnite. I do not think my brother intended to become addicted and have his whole life revolve around this game. I just think that ever since the first time he started playing he fell in love with playing and is having a hard time stopping, especially since he continues to set goals. Comparably, in Macbeth before Macbeth was pressured into changing into someone who is evil and heartless, he could not hurt a soul, but now that he wants to be king, and Lady Macbeth told him he had to change(as we saw in the quote above) in order to be king, he is letting no one and nothing get in his way.

Although the characters in Macbeth and my brother face similar challenges and experience similar addictions, the extent of the sacrifices that they make, and the risks that they take are extremely different. My brother cannot lose his life in Fortnite and does not need to live with the guilt of killing someone. The only thing that can happen to him is that his eyesight goes because he stares at a TV all day, he fails out of middle school and my parents disown him, or he starts to suck at hockey. Despite the fact that these two pieces of entertainment may have seemed to have no connection to each other, they did. As you look at other pieces of work throughout your lifetime, I challenge you to compare it to your life, or even a game that you play, like I did! Trust me, you will be surprised by how many similarities there are.