’Tis his main hope; / For where there is advantage to be given, / Both more and less have given him the revolt, / And none serve with him but constrained things, / Whose hearts are absent too.
Act V, Scene 4 · Malcolm
Context
Malcolm explains why Macbeth remains holed up in Dunsinane: Macbeth's only hope is to withstand a siege, because all ranks of his former supporters have deserted him, and those still serving him do so only under compulsion.
Analysis
The phrase 'constrained things' strips Macbeth's remaining followers of personhood, reducing them to objects held in place by force rather than loyalty. 'Hearts are absent' spatializes inner allegiance, suggesting that even physically present bodies are hollow when devotion is gone. This emptiness around Macbeth mirrors his earlier hollowing-out of meaning—he pursued the crown but drained it of legitimacy—and now rules over a kingdom of the coerced, where power has replaced every human bond.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Macbeth's tyranny is self-defeating—by the play's end he commands only 'things,' not people, showing that a throne seized by violence cannot generate the loyalty needed to keep it.