I never knew it before. I never knew anything before. When she come into the court I say to myself, I must not accuse this woman, for she sleep in ditches, and so very old and poor. But then – then she sit there, denying and denying, and I feel a misty coldness climbin’ up my back, and the skin on my skull begin to creep, and I feel a clamp around my neck and I cannot breathe air; and then I hear a voice, a screamin’ voice, and it were my voice – and all at once I remember everything she done to me!
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 2. The ramblings of Mary Warren provide a flavor of the mass hysteria, fear and panic enveloping the town of Salem and the court. Letting her imagination run riot, she vividly describes to the Proctors an episode in court that prompted her to accuse homeless woman Sarah Good. She claims to have been possessed by some force so that she couldn’t breathe. Using personification, she describe a cold sweat climbing up her back and her skin starting to crawl. Then suddenly she claims to recall a forgotten memory of what Sarah Good had done to her. Sarah, said to be old and poor and sleeping in ditches, is an easy target for Mary and the other girls to accuse of witchcraft.