What does Mary Warren tell Danforth?

In The Crucible, Mary Warren first tells Deputy Governor Danforth that Abigail and the other girls are lying—they only pretended to see spirits. John Proctor brings Mary to court in Act 3 because he hopes her testimony will expose the witch trials as a fraud and save Elizabeth, Rebecca Nurse, Martha Corey, and the others accused. Mary is terrified, but she tells Danforth that she never truly saw spirits and that the girls’ accusations were false. When Hathorne asks her to faint as she supposedly did during the trials, she cannot do it. She explains that, in the courtroom before, the screaming girls and the judges’ belief made her feel as if she really did see spirits.

Mary’s testimony briefly makes Danforth doubt Abigail. But Abigail regains control by pretending that Mary is attacking the girls with her spirit, and the other girls imitate her. Under this pressure, and after Danforth threatens her with hanging unless she confesses, Mary breaks. She runs to Abigail and turns against Proctor, accusing him of being allied with the devil. So, although Mary tells Danforth the truth at first, she takes it back when fear overwhelms her. Her collapse shows how the court’s pressure makes honesty feel impossible: the same system that claims to seek truth rewards false confession and punishes anyone who challenges the accusations.