I seemed to hear a hiss, and the green snake of jealousy, rising on undulating coils from the moonlit balcony, glided within my waistcoat, and ate its way in two minutes to my heart's core.
Chapter 15 · Edward Rochester
Context
Rochester describes the moment he saw Céline return home accompanied by another man. He personifies his jealousy as a snake that strikes him.
Analysis
The 'green snake' that 'glided within my waistcoat' and ate its way to his heart transforms jealousy into a Gothic intruder—something external that invades and consumes. By externalizing the emotion this way, Rochester avoids responsibility for it; the syntax makes him the passive recipient ('a snake...glided') rather than the agent of his own anger, which mirrors how he often deflects blame for his moral failures onto 'fate' or 'destiny.'
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that Rochester habitually frames himself as the victim of forces beyond his control—whether jealousy, passion, or circumstance—rather than as a man who makes choices, and that this self-mythologizing is part of what Jane must see through in order to claim equality with him.