The problem of the instability of an incompressible viscous liquid jet is considered within the context of one-dimensional Cosserat equations. Linear stability analyses are performed for both the infinite and semi-infinite jets. The results obtained for the inviscid case are compared with the corresponding results derived from ideal fluid equations. They are also compared with recent results by other authors obtained from a different set of one-dimensional jet equations. Solutions are also obtained, within the framework of the linearized theory, to the jet break-up problems formulated as an initial-value problem for the infinite jet and as a boundary-value problem for the semi-infinite jet.