- ch: anne elliot,
- ch: caroline bingley,
- ch: catherine morland,
- ch: charles bingley,
- ch: edmund bertram,
- ch: elinor dashwood,
- ch: elizabeth bennet,
- ch: emma woodhouse,
- ch: fanny price,
- ch: fitzwilliam darcy,
- ch: frederick wentworth,
- ch: george knightley,
- ch: henry crawford,
- ch: henry tilney,
- ch: jane bennet,
- ch: lady catherine de bourgh,
- ch: lydia bennet,
- ch: marianne dashwood,
- character: mary bennet,
- character: mary crawford,
- character: mr bennet,
- fandom: austen,
- genre: meta
MBTI and Austenworld
Back when I was in high school, my entire class had to take these tests for a health class – I was an INTJ, to my utter non-surprise. Then, when I went into college two years later, I took it again – INTP. Since I was always a borderline J anyway, and also a bit off my head at the time, also not surprised. The other day, I took it at work, again, and I was back to my old INTJ-ness. Which was awesome, because I get – er – more P-ish when I’m not quite well. Anyway, I took the link over to the ‘these are what INTJs are like, and these are some examples’. The RL examples were pretty cool, but not half as much as the fictional ones.
Hannibal Lecter, Fitzwilliam Darcy, and Gandalf the Grey. It just doesn’t get cooler than that.
Anyway, I looked for other Austen characters, but they weren’t there. And I thought to myself: ‘Well, that’s weird, because General Knowledge does manage to peg some of the characters fairly well – type-wise – while Darcy’s perpetually miscast. Yet here he is, exactly where he belongs, and the more obvious ones are excluded.’ (Maybe not in those words, but it was to that effect.) And then I said to myself, ‘Self, wouldn’t it be curious to try and peg them?’
So, here’s my amateur attempt:
GUARDIANS
- ISTJ, www.personalitypage.com/ISTJ.html
- ISFJ, www.personalitypage.com/ISFJ.html
- ESTJ, www.personalitypage.com/ESTJ.html
- ESFJ, www.personalitypage.com/ESFJ.html
Mary Bennet: ESTJ (Supervisor/Guardian)
Elinor Dashwood: ISTJ (Inspector/Duty Fulfiller) [note: originally I pegged her as an ISFJ; I'm honestly not sure how I could possibly have thought her anything but a T]
Lady Catherine de Bourgh: ESTJ (Supervisor/Guardian)
Anne Elliot: ISFJ (Protector/Nurturer)
George Knightley: ESTJ (Supervisor/Guardian) [note: ESFJ (Provider/Caregiver) is also a possibility]
Fanny Price: ISFJ (Protector/Nurturer)
ARTISANS
- ISTP, www.personalitypage.com/ESFJ.html
- ISFP, www.personalitypage.com/ISFP.html
- ESTP, www.personalitypage.com/ESTP.html
- ESFP, www.personalitypage.com/ESFP.html
Elizabeth Bennet: ISFP [note: I originally pegged her as an ENTP for reasons which, as with Elinor, still elude me, as she could not be more blatantly F - and S - if she tried; moreover, she's technically an introvert, but an expressive, outgoing one, so she's more of an XSFP - her outward, social behaviour is characteristic of an ESFP, while her inner life and personal relationships are more like an ISFP's]
Lydia Bennet: ESFP (Performer) [note: Next to Lydia, her fellow ESFPs are positively tame - she's probably the most extreme SP to appear in any of the novels]
Caroline Bingley: ESTP (Promoter/Doer)
Charles Bingley: ESFP (Performer) [note: I'm starting to see a pattern here . . . though they're all very different, it's interesting that Austen's Artisans are almost invariably Feeling Extraverts, isn't it?]
Henry Crawford: ESFP (Performer)
Mary Crawford: ESFP (Performer) [note: I vacillated a bit over whether Mary and/or Henry were Fs or Ts]
IDEALISTS
- INFJ, www.personalitypage.com/INFJ.html
- INFP, www.personalitypage.com/INFP.html
- ENFJ, www.personalitypage.com/ENFJ.html
- ENFP, www.personalitypage.com/ENFP.html
Jane Bennet: INFP (Healer/Idealist) [note: Jane's the most INFP of all the INFPs, seriously]
Edmund Bertram: INFP (Healer/Idealist) [note: I originally pegged him as an INFJ, but on second thought, he's almost certainly a P]
Marianne Dashwood: ENFP (Champion/Inspirer) [note: the F-est NF ever]
Catherine Morland: INFP (Healer/Idealist)
Frederick Wentworth: ENFP (Champion/Inspirer) [note: same as with Edmund - especially since part of the reason for Lady Russell's opposition to him is his P-ness; however, he's much less dramatically N & F than Marianne or Jane]
RATIONALS
- INTJ, www.personalitypage.com/INTJ.html
- INTP, www.personalitypage.com/INTP.html
- ENTJ, www.personalitypage.com/ENTJ.html
- ENTP, www.personalitypage.com/ENTP.html
Mr Bennet: INTP (Architect/Thinker)
Fitzwilliam Darcy: INTJ (Mastermind/Scientist) [note: the other Austen characters' types are all my personal opinion; Darcy alone has been officially "typed" - I just happen to agree with them]
Henry Tilney: ENTP (Inventor/Visionary) [note: I found it interesting that, while I've always thought of Henry as Elizabeth Bennet's male doppelganger, this would put him - roughly - halfway between Elizabeth and Darcy; I looked again, but I still can't see him as an F, and not really as an S either]
Emma Woodhouse: ENTJ (Fieldmarshal/Executive)