Sarah Osburn Quotes

Oh, how many times he bid me kill you, Mr. Parris…He say Mr. Parris must be kill! Mr. Parris no goodly man, Mr. Parris mean man and no gently man, and he bid me rise out of my bed and cut your throat! But I tell him "No! I don’t hate that man. I don’t want kill that man." But he say, "You work for me, Tituba, and I make you free! I give you pretty dress to wear, and put you way high up in the air, and you gone fly back to Barbados!" And I say, "You lie, Devil, you lie!" And then he come one stormy night to me, and he say, "Look! I have white people belong to me." And I look – and there was Goody Good…and Goody Osburn.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. After being pressured by Parris and Hale to confess to dealing with the Devil and to reveal the names of others, Barbados slave Tituba lies and does so. She makes up a story of how Satan ordered her to kill Parris, quoting the Devil’s words of how bad and mean her master Parris is. Then she offers false testimony that she saw homeless beggar Sarah Good and town drunkard Sarah Osburn in the company of the Devil. In confessing and naming these unfortunate women as "witches," Tituba is hoping to save herself from death. This mirrors events during the witch hunt of communists led by Senator Joe McCarthy during the 1950s, when people were pressured to confess and name names.

I want to open myself! I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. The act ends in dramatic fashion when the Parris house erupts into a fever of hysteria as opportunistic Abigail displays her power as a puppet master. She has just seen the slave Tituba win praise from Hale for her witchcraft confession. To get herself out of trouble, Abby decides to confess also and shout out the names of women she saw with the Devil. This triggers Betty to rise from her bed and cry out hysterically and name more names. Between them they falsely accuse eleven women of consorting with Satan. From then on Abby is the leader and master manipulator of the group of young girls who provide false testimony to the witch trials. There are considerable parallels between this scene and the false accusations and mass hysteria that surrounded the McCarthy era communist witch hunt.

It is her dearest hope, John, I know it. There be a thousand names; why does she call mine? There be a certain danger in calling such a name – I am no Goody Good that sleeps in ditches, nor Osburn, drunk and half-witted. She’d dare not call out such a farmer’s wife but there be monstrous profit in it. She thinks to take my place, John.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Elizabeth realizes that Abigail’s motives for accusing her of being a witch stem from jealousy, because Abby wants to replace her as John’s wife. Elizabeth knows that she is no vagrant like Sarah Good or drunkard like Sarah Osburn, so Abby must have a strong reason to target a farmer’s wife. Which is to be the next Mrs. Proctor when Elizabeth is executed. There is foreshadowing here, with Elizabeth’s suspicions later proving to be right when she is arrested for witchcraft and planted evidence of a doll used against her.
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