MBTI Type: ISFJ

Lady Ludlow is an unhealthy Si-dom, in that she finds herself incapable of accepting change. She keeps her house the same as when her absent son lived there, and a Shetland Pony always in residence to remind herself of him. She lives so much in her memories, the outer world shakes her up from time to time. Each year, ritualistically, she hosts the same garden party and hopes her son will attend. The town can “count on her” always to be there for them. She still sees herself as so much a mother to her son, she cannot refuse him anything. Fear of change, of adaptation, of anything being different, makes her a fierce opponent of the railway. She refuses to sell them her land, to consider changing her mind, or to think about how the world has changed, since she never leaves her home, living as a relative recluse. She argues that she cannot economize her household, because she provides jobs and incomes for her servants, and houses her tenants. She would rather starve or go into debt than discontinue paying them, because she sees herself as responsible for their welfare. Lady Ludlow suffers from a bit of classism in her moral opinions; she doesn’t want Harry to have an education, out of fear it will rise him above his station and threaten his future (and the entire aristocracy to which she belongs). Lady Ludlow at first is judgmental of his father, but when she goes to visit his family and sees their impoverished state, she refuses to press charges against him for poaching and lets him out of jail. Her thinking is somewhat sound (she is right, the town does rely on her as a source of revenue and housing) but also flawed when it comes to her son (she mortgages her estate to pay for his frivolous behavior, and continues to hold out hope he will return home and love her for it).

Enneagram: 2w1 so/sp

Lady Ludlow covets her son’s love. That’s the bottom line of her life. Once he left the house, and she was no longer “needed,” she continued loving him from afar, paying all his bills in the hope of earning his affection and bringing him home, and creating a dependent relationship for him in which she feels unable to express her own feelings or needs (that he needs to come home and attend to his mother). Her 1 wing is principled; her secretary says she had “duty written on her bones.” She does not like to get upset, and reacts angrily against anything that threatens to upset the delicate balance in the house (such as Harry). She tries to provide for all her son’s needs, and also care for the town… without directly engaging with anyone.