MBTI Type: INFP

Dorrit is an unhealthy example of a Fi-dom, because his life is all about him. His wants. His needs. His slights. His reputation. What benefits him. It is insanely easy to insult him. People can do it just by looking at him the wrong way. He will blow his feelings way out of proportion, find grievous insults where none exist, and insist on everyone deferring to all his emotional sensitivities, throwing tantrums when he does not get his way, while withholding affection from other people. His inferior Te can be ruthless in its criticisms. Amy is making them all ashamed, because she acts like a pauper. His brother is “growing quite old, yes, he’s quite changed and broken, poor man.” He wants Amy to marry a boy she doesn’t love, just to increase his position in society. Dorrit on occasion shows fondness for his favorite child, but he is so selfish, it’s hard for him to break away from his wants and needs and show any respect for anyone else’s wants and needs. Rather than face the brutal truth of his lousy life in the Marshalsea, Dorrit creates a fantasy world for himself in which he is a renowned and revered gentleman to whom others pay tribute. Once aware he can leave the prison, he’s eager to abandon it for the outside world,  fast to adopt a new lifestyle, desperate to travel away from his past, and quick to want things to change (finding matches for his children, and thinking how he can marry to advance his position in society and secure Mrs. General’s expertise in high society manners). His low Si feels some fear of change, finds it hard to get over the past, and colors the entire experience in prison into a place of deep personal shame and bitter memories. He and Amy have different experiences of it – he hated it, felt stifled there, she felt loved and safe there.

Enneagram: 3w4 so/sp

Dorrit is an excellent example of an unhealthy 3. He can’t admit to his mistakes, to his failures, to being poor, or to being in jail, so he has to turn it around and make it an honor for others to visit him. He’s not “begging,” they are showing RESPECT by leaving financial donations, and he has to wax and wane about what good “gentlemen” the people who give him charity are. He lectures his entire family about behaving appropriately like “gentlemen/women” despite the fact that he’s raised them all in a debtor’s prison. He won’t hear of his children earning a living! Any slight aspersion that doesn’t match his delusion is attacked instantly – that person is not of good breeding or good society, they have cast aspersions on him, they shame themselves by being so wrong! When he gets money, Dorrit instantly becomes ashamed of all the “low” (but kind) people that used to take care of them and aggressively abandons them, refuses to have anything to do with them, and tries to sever all ties, becoming fanatically obsessed with the idea of keeping his shameful past out of the public eye, lying about their situation (they have always traveled abroad, that’s why no one in London has ever heard of them). He becomes abusive to the family members who threaten to dispel this illusion (Amy helps other people too much “like a servant,” and his brother “should take greater care of his appearance”). In short, he’s insufferable, self-absorbed, and unable to admit when he’s wrong. His 4 wing is frequently reactive to perceived slights, insults, and implications toward his past or his position. He can be self-absorbed and melodramatic, flouncing around and calling Amy selfish for not catering to his demands. On occasion, he embarrasses himself by leaning too much into his 4 wing and being haughty and easily offended (how dare this man give away our rooms! I shall leave at once, if people aren’t about to respect me!).