# The Serpent — Back to Methuselah character guide

> The Serpent in Back to Methuselah by George Bernard Shaw.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** the old serpent, The Serpent Adam

**First appearance:** 0052-part-i-in-the-beginning

## Snapshot

A gorgeous, double-tongued snake who has taught herself to talk, tempting Eve with the secret of death, birth, and willing what never was.

## Who they are

The Serpent slithers out of the johnswort in a magnificent amethyst hood, flattering Eve and licking her neck while whispering the vocabulary of mortality. She is the play's first artist and first philosopher, boasting that she dreams things that never were and asks why not. Her seduction of Eve is not malice but sheer creative appetite, and it launches the long Shaw argument that imagination, not obedience, is what makes life worth living.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/back_to_methuselah_se/characters/the_serpent
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/back_to_methuselah_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/back_to_methuselah_se/characters