MBTI Type: ESFJ

Dorcas cares a great deal about everyone she meets, from “bending the rules” to appease her customers for kindness sake to taking in orphaned children and helping out those in need. She is deeply sensitive, easily hurt when other people accuse her of meddling, and generous with her reassurance. Dorcas often knows just the right thing to say to smooth a bad situation over, or to help someone figure out the right thing to do. Her warm, affable nature puts others at ease and enjoys their appreciation and approval. Though she doesn’t like it when others pull back from her emotionally, Dorcas is good at analyzing people and situations in order to help them. She is sensible in her approach and able to think her way around the rules (such as suggesting to Sir Timothy that they measure the distance to Lark Rise not by the road, but the short cut the villagers take, in order to have it within the eight mile limits), but she’s not always rational and tends to become critical and hot-headed under stress. She inherited the post office from her father, and often recalls things he told her. She is content to work a steady daily job with lots of paperwork and details to attend to; Dorcas often follows and trusts the “rules” but finds creative ways around them when necessary. Dorcas has kept all of her clothes from when she was Laura’s age, and enjoys passing them on to her. She loves participating in annual traditions and going on regular horseback rides with Timothy. Whenever there is a problem to be solved, Dorcas comes up with and bounces her ideas off of other people. She isn’t above having a vivid imagination and believing in things that she cannot see. Dorcas often senses what is going on underneath the surface in other people and encourages them to confide in her. She can be a bit of a matchmaker, and has no trouble getting to the root of real problems, rather than superficial explanations.

Enneagram: 2w1 so/sp

Dorcas has a lot of pride in her standing in the community, and in how useful and helpful she is to others; she likes to keep their secrets, and cautions Laura to do her best, because they are the pillar of the community. She often interferes in others’ affairs, usually in gentle but persistent ways, but can become angry when others confront her about this or reject her help (shortly before apologizing, and saying she should not have meddled). But meddled she does, in pushing people together, encouraging them to make the first move, taking up a donation for Laura’s father after his tools get stolen and his livelihood threatened. She is emotional and reactive, offended when James insults the exterior of the Post Office (and later, she has it refinished, but makes it out to be her idea). She takes in Minnie out of the goodness of her heart, becomes frustrated with her when she’s useless in the house, and then chastises herself for not having taught her better how to keep a house. Dorcas is one of the healthiest 2s in fiction, with a strong 1 wing in that she often owns her mistakes, apologizes for any misdoing, and feels that she ought not to interfere. She on occasion loses her temper, and can be somewhat combative, as James finds out – she often has romantic tension with men, causing her to defy them.