I – I cannot tell how, but I did. I – I heard the other girls screaming, and you, Your Honor, you seemed to believe them, and I – It were only sport in the beginning, sir, but then the whole world cried spirits, spirits, and I – I promise you, Mr. Danforth, I only thought I saw them but I did not.
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 3. Mary Warren admits to the court that she and the other girls were lying when they said they saw spirits. It began as sport, she says, and then when the whole world cried spirits, she thought she saw them but didn’t. Mary provides an insight into how fear, peer pressure and mass hysteria combine to ignite a chain reaction in court of girls screaming that they could see spirits.