# The Veiled Woman — Back to Methuselah character guide

> The Veiled Woman in Back to Methuselah by George Bernard Shaw.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Woman Zozim Zoo Cain Adamson Charles Napoleon, The Woman, Zoo, Mrs. Zoo, Zoo Interrupting, Zoo Oh, Zoo Dissolve

**First appearance:** 0057-part-iv-tragedy-of-an-elderly-gentleman

## Snapshot

The oracle on duty in the far future, who drops the mummery the moment she meets someone worth speaking to plainly.

## Who they are

Veiled and robed, she passes behind the temple columns with a majesty that makes Napoleon stop in his tracks, then dismantles his Man of Destiny rhetoric without raising her voice. She is guardian, oracle, and something closer to a field of force than a person, and she treats the envoy's ritual as a performance she is willing to skip for a sensible man. Her importance lies in that double register: she can play the pythoness for credulous visitors and speak as a peer to anyone who sees through it, which makes her the play's model of what a long-lived mind actually looks like.

## Links

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