Some characters in Macbeth have relations between blood and honor. The Bloody Captain and Young Siward are described as honorable from their connections with blood. When the Bloody Captain reports to Duncan during the opening battle between the Scottish and rebels, the king tells the captain that his wounds “smack of honor” (I. ii. 48). The soldier has proven himself in battle by facing injury and is now considered an honorable fighter. The king greeted the captain by calling him a “valiant cousin, worthy gentleman” (I. ii. 26). Duncan believes that the captain is a good man based on the fact that he has been wounded and is bloody. At the end of the play, Young Siward is depicted as a man due to the placement of his wounds. Young Siward's father asks “Had he his hurts before? /” to which Ross responded that they were “on the front” (V. viii. 53-54). The placement of Siward's blood signified that he was truly a man because he died fighting, not fleeing. Men were considered to be brave in combat and not to have mercy for anyone.

Other characters feel immense guilt in relation to the symbol of blood. Lady Macbeth sees blood as an indicator of unbelievable guilt. While sleepwalking, Lady Macbeth attempts to wash a spot of Duncan's blood out of her dress:

Out, damned spot, out, I say? One. Two.
Why then, "tis time to do "t. Hell is murky. Fie, my
lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear
who knows it, when none can call our power to
account? Yet who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him? (V. i. 37-42)

In reality, there is no blood in Lady Macbeth's dress, but she feels the presence of guilt caused by Duncan's murder. She did not expect to feel so much guilt from taking part in the murder. Lady Macbeth asks if her “hands ne'er be clean...” (V. i. 45). No matter what she does, she can not remove the guilty thoughts from her mind. Lady Macbeth says that the “perfumes of Arabia” would not “sweeten” her hand (V. i. 54). Nothing can cover up what Lady Macbeth did with her own hands. Lady Macbeth realizes that she will never be rid of the guilt that plagues her and soon commits suicide.

Blood relates to Macbeth as a symbol of evil and perceived invincibility. This is illustrated in Macbeth's final battle with Macduff. Macduff tells Macbeth that his “voice is in [his] sword, thou bloodier villain / Than terms can give thee out” (V. viii. 7-8). This is a proclamation that Macbeth's deeds are so horrible that words cannot describe them. During the battle, Macbeth tells his adversary that:

As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed.
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield
To one of woman born. (V. viii. 12-16)

The king believes that it does not matter how much blood Macduff makes him spill because he cannot die to one of woman born. The blood that Macduff spills does not have any effect on his life. Macbeth soon proves to be wrong as Macduff was “Untimely ripped” from his mother's womb (V. viii. 20). Macduff was not literally born from his mother, meaning that he was the one that could kill Macbeth.

Shakespeare's Macbeth uses the symbol of blood to relate different meanings. The characters in Macbeth each have distinctive connections to blood, and are associated with blood in different ways. Blood can be a symbol of evil and represent guilt which can never be washed away. Blood could also represent the honor or glory one attains when wounded or killed in battle. The symbols relay the characteristics of all the people in the play. Each character has a different representation of blood that corresponds to him.

Told Macbeth, he was to be king, Banquo would father a line of kings, and conjured an apparition who told him no one born of a woman could harm him.

The Witches told Macbeth, he would be Thane of Cawdor. “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor” (1, 2, 49). The Witches told, also, told him would be king. “All hail, Macbeth, that shall be king hereafter” (1, 2, 50). This made Macbeth wonder. Soon after, he became Thane of Cawdor. He, then, knew that the possibilities of becoming king were fair. He informed Lady Macbeth and she took charge. “O, never shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters. To beguile the time, look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue: look like th'innocent flower, but serpent under't. He that's coming must be provided for: and you shall put this night's great business into my dispatch; which shall to all our nights and days to come give solely sovereign sway and Masterdom” (1,5,58-68). Macbeth killed the king and his guards. The Witches caused this by saying he would be king but their word spoke the truth.

The Witches, also, led on that Banquo would father a line of kings. “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none” (1, 2, 67). When Macbeth became king, he remembered what the Witches told Banquo. He knew if this were true, Banquo's fortune could also be true. He decided to kill Banquo. “That every minute of his being thrusts against my near'st of life: and though I could with barefaced power sweep him from my sight and bid my will a vouch it, yet I must not, for certain friends that are both his and mine, whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall who I myself struck down: and thence it is that I to your assistance do make love, masking the business from the common eye for sundry weighty reasons” (3, 1, 116-126). He, soon, had Banquo murdered and tried to kill Fleance but he fled the scene.

The Witches conjured apparitions to tell Macbeth that no one born to woman shall harm him. “Be bloody, bold, and resolute! Laugh to scorn the pow'r of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth” (4, 1 79-81). Macbeth became cocky over a short period of time. He quit trying. “All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus: “Fear not, Macbeth: no man that's born of woman shall e'er have power upon thee” Then, fly, false thanes, and mingle with the English epicures. The mind I sway by and the heart I bear shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear” (5, 3, 5-10). MacDuff led the soldiers up the hill, revealing that his mother had a cesarean section done. “MacDuff was from his mother's womb untimely ripped” (5, 8, 15-16). They had a sword fight leading to the death of Macbeth and the crowning of Malcolm. “Hail, King of Scotland” (5, 8, 59).

The Witches led Macbeth to believe that he would be king , Banquo would father kings, and he wouldn't be harmed by any man born to woman. The Witches are the main cause of Macbeth's attitude towards what they told him.

This ambition is incurred when Lady Macbeth first receives the letter from Macbeth telling of his promotion to Thane of Cawdor Lady Macbeth knows just how ambitious Macbeth is to become king and we can infer from the passage about Macbeth being full of "th' milk of human kindness" to take the steps necessary to become king" (Act 1, Scene 5) that Lady Macbeth is sure she is going to have to come up with a way in which to allow Macbeth secession to the crownAs she awaits her husband's arrival, she delivers a famous speech in which she begs, "you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty" (Act 1, Scene 5.) This is her ambition shining through, which will become her downfall later on in the play.

When Duncan arrives wand says he will depart tomorrow, Lady Macbeth says to Macbeth that King Duncan will never see tomorrow. Her ambition for power and position is really becoming prevalent at this point, and when Macbeth is hesitant about killing Duncan, Lady Macbeth outraged and furious, says " when you durst do it, then you were a man"(Act 1, Scene 7.)

MACB: "If we should fail?"LADY M: "We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place and we'll not fail" (Act 1, Scene 7.)The audience at this point is really frightened because for a woman to say something like that to her husband was just unheard of, and Lady Macbeth is considered one of Shakespeare's most memorable characters because she is very ambitious and very ruthless at the same time.

In the famous murder scene, at which point Lady Macbeth is fearful that someone might hear what Macbeth is doing, hears "an owl shriek that fatal bellman" (Act 2, Scene 2,) which is the universal symbol of death. I believe Lady Macbeth, though not at this point, will fall pray to a massive amount of guilt and literally her madness rages through her inevitably causing her death.

Jumping ahead in time upon entering into Act 5, we are delving deeper into the collective conscience of Lady Macbeth. Aside from Lady Macbeth trying to defy her husband, another problem seems to arise because of her ambitious character; she is subjected to horrible nightmares and visions that only extrapolate her underlying guilt and madness for executing her plan to kill Duncan.

However, the burden that Lady Macbeth has endured thus far has become almost too great for her and her mental and physical condition deteriorates. The doctor and the gentlewoman in the room observe Lady Macbeth sleepwalking, madly trying to cleanse her hands of the blood of Duncan and still in her sleep:

"Out, damned spot! Out. I say! One, two: why then "tis time to do"t. Hell is murky, Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeared? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call out power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him" (Act V, Scene 1,)basically admitting to the killing of Duncan.

Double-damnation sets in because she has just admitted to murder, but what she does later on in the play, makes it double."Here's the smell of blood still: all the perfumes in Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh! (Act V, Scene 1,) further reiterating the murder. The line that adds so much closure to this play is the following line,"To bed, to bed; there's a knocking at the gate; come, come, give me your hand; what's done cannot be undone; to bed, to bed, to bed" (Act V, Scene 1,) basically saying they can't bring Duncan back from the dead so they need to hide and act surprised when they are told the news of Duncan's death.Lady Macbeth's condition worsens as the play nears its end and as the battle ensues outside of Dunsinane, and Lady Macbeth's guilt and madness rises to the surface, finally by unspecified means, Lady Macbeth commits suicide.

The theory of double-damnation imbues itself from the Bible, a very Christian reference of "thou shalt not kill." Killing someone was considered an abomination, then turning around and killing yourself is a direct defiance of God and is punishable by eternal damnation in hell, or so they thought. Lady Macbeth's situation perpetuates itself in the form of guilt that be from the organized killing of Duncan and maybe even guilt of killing herself.

Though not in the time period of today, many women would praise Lady Macbeth for standing up for what she believes in and taking back the control that her husband once had over her, however that would be considered unnatural in the time of Macbeth.

Many would say that Lady Macbeth killing herself because she could no longer bear the torments that were suppressed in her conscience. Perhaps Lady Macbeth thought that suppressing her conscience for the deed at hand would be enough, as to not think about it and later the thought of the deed would dissipate, and leave her mind forever, or it could be signaling to us her inability to cope with the legacy of crimes yet to come, all of which are left up to interpretation.

Through literal interpretation, once could call Lady Macbeth the woman of the century for the mere fact that the women of this time use female methods of achieving power which involved manipulation to further their supposedly male ambitions. Women, the play implies, can be as ambitious and cruel as men, yet social constraints deny them the means to pursue these ambitions on their own.

Finally because of all the reasons listed above I conclude without a shadow of a doubt that Lady Macbeth would be considered a hero in today's society, because of those who think this was one of the first attempts at women's rights even in Shakespeare's time.

In the first lines of the play shadows of doubt are cast into our mind about Macbeth because we hear the witches talking about meeting him. We know they want to meet Macbeth because they say, "There to meet with Macbeth", we wonder why he is meeting with the witches because they are supposed to be evil. An Elizabethan would have a stronger point of view then us as they saw witchcraft as very evil and it was punishable by death. The reason we would wonder why Macbeth was doing this is because it's a tragedy and it wouldn't be a tragedy if Macbeth was an evil character.

Any doubts a bout Macbeth go as the play unfolds because of the way people talk about him. The sergeant calls him …'brave Macbeth'… and Duncan talks of him as …'valiant cousin'… .

We would be happy at his bravery and an Elizabethan would be thinking on him very well because of the divine right of kings. The divine right of kings is a belief of the Elizabethans who believed that kings were like gods and that they were appointed by god so doing anything against a king would make god angry because it was like going against him. Duncan saying he was honourable was almost as though god had said it because of the right.

In this scene you could say it's the beginning of the end because Macbeth is promised he will be Thane of Glamis which he already is, Thane of Cawdor which we found out the scene before and most importantly king. At first Macbeth is shocked and says that it "stands not in the prospect of belief". The Elizabethans would feel relief at this because for Macbeth to even consider being king would be bad enough to anger God. As the scene unfolds Macbeth begins to get curious and goes on to say "would they had stayed" which shows he wants to know more. While we find this perfectly normal in human nature an Elizabethan audience would be angry and annoyed because they would think I was none of his business unless he didn't have to do anything to gain the titles. Near the end of the scene Shakespeare gives Macbeth his first aside in which he says he wouldn't consider murder. The Elizabethans would probably breathe a sigh of relief at this point as it appears their fears have been banished and Macbeth then seems to confirm this as he says

'If chance will have me king,
Why chance can crown me,
Without my stir'

As the play goes on Macbeth meets Duncan and it is the first meeting we see. The king congratulates and thanks him saying "o worthiest cousin," …

'Wouldst thou hadst less deserv'd
That the proportion both of thanks, and payment' …

More than all can pay' an Elizabethan audience and a modern day would both be happy Macbeth had gained the praise he deserved but an Elizabethan audience would feel it more because of Macbeth's honour and chivalry. Another key point is the naming of Malcolm as heir to the throne and Macbeth's reaction. The reason this is so important is that we see Macbeth's swift reaction from saying he wouldn't get involved without chance making him to saying …'that is a step at,

On which I must fall down or else o'erleap' an Elizabethan audience would find this awful as he is willing to destroy the whole chain and kill the heir and king while we would find the massive change startling. Another thing to note is the fact he is only considering doing something and is uncertain we know this because he says "let not light see my black and deep desires" which means he doesn't want others to know his desires and he himself doesn't want to face them.

When we move to Macbeth's castle we see Lady Macbeth on her own with a letter from Macbeth. The letter tells her of the witches promises that he would be Thane of Cawdor and king, it also said he was already the new thane of Cawdor and that he didn't know what to do. The reaction Shakespeare gives Lady Macbeth is very interesting. She seems to be the stronger of the two and instantly makes the decision that he will be king as promised. She also seems to know Macbeth too well and says that he is "too full o" th' milk of humane kindness' and will not want to interfere with natures way to become king. A modern day audience would find it strange how such a brave man is weaker than his “more evil” wife. An Elizabethan audience would have an issue with the fact that an honourable and brave warrior was weaker than his wife was.

The next day at Macbeth's castle Duncan arrives and we see Macbeth and Lady Macbeth deceiving Duncan as they have already decided to kill him and are acting like they are his best friends. We know this because at the end of the scene before Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are talking about killing Duncan and now they are being nice to him. A modern day audience would dislike the fact that they are openly lying to the king while an Elizabethan audience would despise them for it, wondering where Macbeth's honour had gone because now he is lying to his king.

As the play develops further we get the first soliloquy from Macbeth where he states he doesn't want to face the consequences, with that he decides not to murder Duncan. Later in the scene he decides he will kill Duncan after some persuasion from lady Macbeth even though he says "I have no spur

to prick the sides of my intent but only

vaulting ambition…". Here Shakespeare is showing that Macbeth is very indecisive about what to do. We would feel that Macbeth is a coward because he has no real reason for the murder and he is unwilling to face the consequences while an Elizabethan audience would find it terrible knowing that the murder would anger god and disrupt nature.

In this scene when the dagger appears to Macbeth we would find it strange because it is impossible a dagger couldn't really be floating in the air in front of him we would also think it was a bad excuse for murdering the king. An Elizabethan audience would be quite scared because it is unnatural and they would probably think it had something to do with the witches they would feel Macbeth was strange and was thinking with a guilty mind using the dagger as an excuse to kill Duncan.

The next day we know that Macbeth wishes he hadn't killed Duncan because he is inconsolable we know this because he says " this is a sorry night" and he says that the word "amen stuck in my throat". We would feel it served him right but at the back of our minds we would think he might not have done it if Lady Macbeth hadn't been there. An Elizabethan audience would feel he got what he deserved in that he felt sad and wouldn't have any sympathy for him at all.

As other people find out about the murder Macbeth kills the guards when he goes to see Duncan claiming he did it because he was so angry he couldn't control himself. We would find this clever yet we would still be angry at the fact he killed Duncan, an Elizabethan audience would feel even worse after this because the guards didn't do anything at all and Macbeth was being cowardly hiding from the truth.

Macbeth is starting to get paranoid after killing Duncan and we know this because he hires murderers to kill Banquo, his best friend, to make sure they kill him he makes sure they think he is there enemy and insults them. We would find this awful that he betrays his friend and lies about him to the murderers. An Elizabethan audience would find it worse because he was Macbeth's partner in war as well as his friend.

As the play unfolds Macbeth is worried that he hasn't solved the problem we know this because he says "we have scorch"d the snake, not kill'd it' we would be happy it is worrying him and he is paying for his actions and an Elizabethan audience would also be happy.

When Macbeth is having a banquet the ghost of Banquo appears his chair but only Macbeth can see him, Lady Macbeth thinks quickly and manages to reassure the guests but is worried about Macbeth, she still appears to be the stronger of the two. We would be thinking this was strange and an Elizabethan audience would be very suspicious thinking that maybe the witches had something to do with it.

After the ghost has haunted him Macbeth decides to go to see the witches and demands answers to his question they tell him twisted versions of the truth so he thinks he is invincible we would find it foolish as they never tell the truth. An Elizabethan audience would find it bad that Macbeth was going back to the witches after all that's happened because of them. They may also bear in mind the witches call him wicked and the witches are evil themselves so for them to find Macbeth wicked would be worse than a normal person saying it.

Macbeth does his first “evil” act of the play on his own because you see Macduff's wife and son are talking and joking until Macbeth's murderers come in and kill them. At this point he is the lowest of the low to everybody and Shakespeare would find it very hard to make him seem any better after he had done such awful things. To an Elizabethan audience this is the point were they really despise Macbeth and would not be able to see him as any better at all unless Shakespeare managed to make Macbeth do something very honourable.

Meanwhile Malcolm tests Macduff to see whether it is a trap or not. Macduff lies and when Malcolm says they are better without him he tells the truth.

Also in this scene Macduff finds out about his wife and son so Malcolm and Ross help him to convert the sadness to anger against Macbeth.

We suddenly realise how weak minded Lady Macbeth has become because a doctor sees her sleep walking and having nightmares about blood on her hands. We feel that she isn't as strong and that it serves her right and an Elizabethan audience feels she shouldn't have made Macbeth murder Duncan.

Macduff gets the soldiers cut boughs from Birnam wood to hold in front of themselves, this creates the appearance of Birnam wood moving, we now know the end is near

Now we are nearing the end of the play we see a hint of the old Macbeth because he starts off being defiant until he learns of Lady Macbeth's death. When this happens he gives a speech on how he felt for her this makes him feel worse and he loses some defiance. As he is upset a messenger comes in and says "as I did stand my watch upon the hill,

I look"d toward Birnam, and anon methought,

The wood began to move' this is the news that Macbeth dreads as he is told that this is one of the signs that he will lose. We think it is good that he is starting to act the same again now his wife is gone but still feel he shouldn't have done the bad things. An Elizabethan audience would feel a little better but not much. This is the point were Shakespeare starts to lift Macbeth in our opinions again.

In the last scene the old Macbeth is back and he is ready to put up a fight instead of running and even when Macbeth learns Macduff is the man the witches told him would beat him he still fights. This would lift Macbeth up quite a bit in the opinions of an Elizabethan audience because he is being honorable again instead of cowardly. Fighting even when he is very likely to lose would be honorable to an Elizabethan audience.

In conclusion Macbeth stars the play as a great hero but as the play unravels he lowers in the opinion of both a modern day and an Elizabethan audience until he is the lowest of the low when he kills Macduff's wife and son. Gradually Shakespeare manages to lift him up until at the end he is in the middle because of some of the honorable things he does near the end. He would find this so hard to do with an Elizabethan audience because they have much more of an issue with honour than we do and would find it absolutely awful some of the things he did.