GILES: He’ll lay in jail if I give his name!
HATHORNE: This is contempt of the court, Mr. Danforth!
DANFORTH: You will surely tell us the name.
GILES: I will not give you no name. I mentioned my wife’s name once and I’ll burn in hell long enough for that. I stand mute.
DANFORTH: In that case, I have no choice but to arrest you for contempt of this court, do you know that?
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 3. The court pressures Giles Corey to provide the name of a man who heard Thomas Putnam admit to getting his daughter to accuse neighbors of witchcraft in order to acquire their land. Giles shows his integrity and refuses, saying how he mentioned his wife had read strange books and she was imprisoned for witchcraft. Judge Hawthorne accuses Giles of contempt and Judge Danforth threatens him with arrest. There are parallels with the McCarthyism Red Scare era, when people were similarly accused on the basis of flimsy evidence and pressured to name the names of other communists.