MBTI Type: ISFJ

Bates is methodical and precise in his assessment of people; it’s all based in his personal (subjective) experiences and by connecting the dots of how people have acted in the past, how they act in the present, and how they may act in the future. An example of this is Bates being unable to understand what has driven him apart from Anna and why her behavior has so altered – it was happy and joyful and playful before, now she can’t stand being touched and won’t speak to him. When Mrs. Hughes tells him Anna was raped, Bates instantly suspects the person responsible, because of his “behavior toward Anna” right from the start (flirting, teasing, familiarity). It’s a connection of sensory-based inferences, leading to a broader picture (SiNe), though he is reluctant to speculate much about Anna before then, and instead turns to those who  SEEM to know things (inferior Ne). When Bates first comes into the house, he is compassionate and understanding, aware that he must adjust as well as he can to what others expect from him to maintain his position. When Robert considers letting him go because he can’t seem to do his job, Bates asks him not to, and gets tearful, because “it would be hard for me to find another position… I need to work.” He badly hurts himself, trying to become normal and correct his limp, leading Mrs. Hughes to discover his hurtful brace and encourage him to cast it into the lake. Bates assumes himself responsible for his wife’s unhappiness and so goes to prison for her. He also refuses to let Anna become his mistress even though she offers, because “I know you, and that’s not who you are.” He can be generous, loving, and gentle, but also angry and non-communicative. He assumes he can earn a position of loyalty among the servants by not snitching on them, to his own determent. Bates tells Daisy off for being nasty to William, because he doesn’t like to see her mistreating anyone like that or learning bad habits from Thomas. He understands that his limp might make it hard for him to find work, but tries his best for the household. He also figures out his wife’s intentions, and how her deliberate actions, combined with his history of having a bad temper, have framed him for her death.

Enneagram: 6w5 sp/so

Bates is a maddening blend of super-ego defenses and secrets; he assumes because of the mistakes of his past (being a drunk, yelling at his wife, and not giving her a nice life) that he has to make up for it by going to prison for her, and giving their marriage a second chance. He is quite warm to the servants he likes; he goes out of his way to connect to Anna, to ask Gwen why she is crying and to comfort her, and to stand up for others, against Thomas. He feels a need to adjust himself to the expectations of others and meet them (his willingness to return to his wife to protect Lord Grantham comes from his overall loyalty to the household that has taken him in, given him a position, and let him have a new lease on life). But Bates also has a super strong 5 wing; he is withdrawn, remote, and secretive. He won’t tell anyone about anything and keeps to himself. Even when Thomas and O’Brien try to get him sacked, he refuses to tell Carson on them or to implicate Thomas in stealing wine from the cellar. He won’t tell Anna anything about his past, leaving her to find it out for herself. His tendency toward martyrdom leads him to get into trouble, and then refuse to involve anyone else in his problems as he works his way through them himself… sometimes not very well. Though thinking is all he does, at times it’s not very productive in his own defense.