Significance of Serpent

The serpent takes many different forms in the novel such as judgement, anxiety, and the sins of the townspeople in Essex in order to present the idea of the serpent as a subjective illusion that is ever-changing. Ultimately, readers learns that the serpent is not real but its effects are, and that is why the serpent seems to be nowhere and everywhere at once. It resides in the minds and worries of the townspeople while simultaneously being a larger than life presence watching them with the all-seeing eye. Anytime something goes wrong in the town or anytime someone has an internal strife, the serpent appears. If things begin to fall apart in a household the serpent is always there, watching from the outside. The serpent is sin, judgement, punishment and repentance all at once depending on which character it follows.