What is the evidence against Sarah Good?

The evidence against Sarah Good in The Crucible is weak and mostly based on accusation, fear, and superstition rather than proof. She is first named after Tituba is pressured to confess, and Abigail soon adds her own accusation: “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil!” That kind of testimony becomes enough in Salem once the court accepts the girls as victims of witchcraft.

In Act 2, Mary Warren explains the case against Sarah Good to John and Elizabeth Proctor. Mary says Sarah Good “sent her spirit out” during the trial to choke the girls accusing her. She also claims that Sarah Good had tried to harm her before: when Sarah Good came begging and Mary refused her, Sarah Good mumbled, and Mary later felt very sick. To Mary, that sequence of events becomes proof of witchcraft once the trials have taught her to interpret fear and illness as supernatural attacks.

The court also treats Sarah Good’s religious ignorance as evidence. When Judge Hathorne asks what she was mumbling, Sarah Good says she was reciting the Ten Commandments. But when asked to recite them, she cannot name even one. John Proctor dismisses her as a “jabberer,” suggesting that her poverty, drunkenness, and strange behavior make her an easy target.

Sarah Good survives because she confesses to witchcraft, while Goody Osburn, who does not confess, is condemned to hang. Her case shows how Salem’s court rewards confession and treats denial, poverty, fear, and confusion as signs of guilt.