What is the meaning if a person is called a cold hearted snake?

Answer 1

Snakes are cold-blooded. They can only get warm by using external means (i.e. the environment ; the sun). As well, snakes strike without regard for the person -- whether child, adult, or elderly, the snake will bite. "Good" people get struck just as frequently as a "bad" person; snakes make no distinction between whether a person "deserves" the strike or not. A snake uses instinctive self-survival methods and most of these involve harm to humans, even the humans who care a lot for them or take care of them. With their bite, snakes appear to outwit, out-maneuver, and win out in their self-survival battle. If given human qualities, snakes are viewed as deceptive (can be calm, then strike), sneaky, indifferent to "love" and "caring", and only seek to preserve themselves.

So, when a person is called a cold-blooded snake, the speaker intends to draw an analogy to the characteristics and qualities of human-type behaviors people observe about snakes. A person who acts like a cold-hearted snake would be indifferent to who gets hurt and specifically, who the person hurts. The person would not react to caring with a similar caring response. A cold-hearted person would appear to be emotionally dead (cold), calculating, sneaky, deceptive, and willing to do anything to out-wit, out-maneuver, and "win" in any circumstances, even against the person or people who love the person the most.

As an example, a man named George proposes and marries a girl named Jill. Jill believes they are madly in love with each other. But during the marriage, George will "strike" without warning, when Jill least expects the attack. The "strikes" are mostly emotional attacks, but the "venom" George uses in his words, actions, and behavior toward Jill hurt just as much and feel just as deadly as a snake bite. Jill learns to never trust George, because 1. she knows he is capable of being a cold-hearted snake, and 2. she knows George could strike at any time, even when she is being caring or when George has seemed "calm".

As another example, a cold-hearted person might use someone else (just like the snake uses the sun) to meet his/her own needs, without regard for the other person's needs, wants, or feelings. Many socially inept persons fall into this category, as well as sociopaths who never have any regard for anyone else.