MBTI Type: ESTP

Abigail is a born opportunist. She comes to the palace, becomes a kitchen maid, and within a short amount of time, has moved up into the queen’s bedchamber – as her personal maid and sometimes lover, simply by seeing chances and taking them. Like fetching herbs to help ease the queen’s gout pains. Seeing how Sarah controls Anne, and using a different but equally workable tactic (becoming her friend, complimenting her bunnies). As soon as she sets foot in the castle, Abigail sizes up the situation and sees how to manipulate it to her advantage. She makes an advantageous marriage by appealing to someone’s ideas about her, then instantly drops her interest in him and ceases flirtations to ponder other ways to get what she wants (shutting off her Fe and moving back into scheming mode). She can see chances to advance herself, which are tactical, and take them – from her casual “courtship” of a man of higher rank, to getting Anne to adopt her as a personal servant through empathy (slamming her own face with a book, and crying outside her bedroom door, with a sob story about abuse and mistreatment). Abigail often uses her tert-Fe to get what she wants, by making a big deal out of something in order to get sympathy. She sees that her cousin’s frankness insults the queen, and takes the opposite approach. Abigail compliments her, affirms her feelings, gets her to open up about her pain, plays with her rabbits, expresses sorrow for the queen’s misfortunes, and generally makes her happy.She marries a man to secure her high court position, all in pursuit of an intended outcome – the lower Ni vision of “what she wants from her life.”

Enneagram: 3w2 so/sx

She becomes whatever she needs to be, in order to get the life of privilege that she wants – Abigail starts out as a servant, and plays that role well; then she sees a chance to move up, and does so, by paying special attention to the queen; she instinctively senses what Anne needs (someone empathetic and kind) and fulfills that role, until she is in Anne’s confidence. She also plays a role with the men in her life, adopting an attitude she knows will attract them. As Sarah says, Abigail has gone from being a penniless servant to a rich, powerful woman with a fine husband and a position at court. She ignores whatever is irrelevant to reaching her goals (attempted rapes, etc). Her 2 fix is genuinely helpful but seductive and willing to do whatever the queen wants her to, to social climb her way to the top.