When the Invisible Becomes Real: Material and Immaterial Dynamics in The Crucible

Abstract

This study is an ontological inquiry of the material and immaterial dynamics that structure The Crucible by Aurther Miller. The study examines how immaterial constructs are actively transformed into material consequences within juridical and social frameworks. Thus, this study shifts the analytical focus from representation to the production of “truth”. It argues that the play stages a collapse between the invisible and the real where discourse and institutional power do not simply reflect reality but materially constitute it. The current study conducts a thematic analysis of the play by employing the thing theory by Bill Brown (2001). The theory is adapted for analyzing immaterial aspects. Overall, the paper explores the corresponding importance and mutual contingency of material and immaterial phenomena in the play.

Keywords: Immaterial, Material, Religion, Invisible, God, Magic, Morality, Authority