MBTI Type: ISFJ

Jessie has patiently cared for her father for many years, and before that, her sister and mother. She is reluctant to change her lifestyle, but also eager to enter into a romantic relationship – until she discovers it will require moving to India. Since she has never been there before, and must leave what is familiar to do it (her father), she turns down the man’s proposal for the second time. She continues to carry a torch for him all her life; it is a steadfast love that has not faded, but rekindles as soon as he enters the room and enables her to pick up “right where we left off.” Jessie does not show much Ne. She wants to read into the flowers he sends her, and is too quick to leap to a negative conclusion based on the blooms. She does show herself, later on, as ready to enter a new and different life. Her father’s feelings trump her own. Jessie makes her decision to turn down the man she loves not based on her own feelings (she wants to marry him) but on how her father might respond to the idea. Her Fe wants a consensus of feeling and appreciation, but can also be forthcoming in expressing her displeasure when she finds out he intends to leave her and join the railroad. Out of concern for it hurting him, the idea that she would give up her chance at marriage to stay with him, she does not tell him about the proposals. She rationalizes her decisions as being reasonable.

Enneagram: 2w1 sp/so

2s tend to inflate the dependency others have on them, and that’s what Jessie does in turning down the proposal – she imagines herself so vital to her father’s happiness and well being that she cannot possibly leave him and start her own life. Realistically, her father would never want her to sacrifice her own happiness just to comfort him in his own age, but that’s not how she thinks – Jessie is thinking more about his feelings than her own, minimizing her own need for love, appreciation, and comfort, and maximizing his needs, to feel necessary in his life. When she finds out he doesn’t need her as much as she thought, she is shocked, hurt, and disappointed in her mistake. Her 1 wing is purpose-driven, determined to do the right thing, and principled. She easily merges into the ladies of Cranford’s social group but also looks after her father.