MBTI Type: INTJ

Darcy runs into trouble, because he trusts his own insights too much. He admits that once someone loses his good opinion, it is lost forever, speaking to his unwillingness to change his mind. Leaping to a conclusion based on Mrs. Bennet’s behavior, Darcy assumes her daughter Jane is only after his best friend for his money and attempts to drive them apart. He fails to read the actual situation (her responses to him) and instead assumes he knows her intentions. Unlike Jane Austen’s ISTJ hero of Colonel Brandon, Darcy does not assume a misbehavior will create a future pattern of bad behavior. He saves his sister’s reputation and fortune, then simply shuns Wickham rather than suspect he will ruin the Bennet family with similar shenanigans. When Caroline Bingley and Lizzie invite him to join them in a turn around the room, he would rather remark on how that ruins the purpose of their walk (so he can sit and admire their fine figures). He and Lizzie banter while dancing over character and expectations. When necessary, Darcy launches into instant and perhaps precipitous action — in a culture of slow courtship, he rashly and boldly asks Lizzie to marry him. He dashes off a letter, informing her of all the many ways she was wrong in her assumptions about him, and setting the record straight. He tracks down Wickham, and forces him to marry Lydia, thereby securing the family’s reputation. Low Se impulses. He also ignores all social conventions, refusing to dance at the ball with strangers or adapt easily to his new surroundings. He seems most at home, when at home. He has a tendency to state his mind and opinions without censure, both in wit (“You can have but two objectives in walking the room, and my presence would invalidate both…”) and assessing other people (his belief that Jane is a fortune-hunter). Darcy is swift to take action in resolving both his sister’s plans to run away and in resolving the Lydia problem. He knows the social fall out this will have on the Bennet family reputations. Darcy underscores his marital proposal by listing the objections to the match. Even though Darcy is in love with Lizzie, he gives no indication of it to her in their early interactions – and so his proposal blindsides her. He complains that his emotions are strong enough to overcome his rationality and the many reasons why it is an imprudent match. His interventions are kindly meant. Darcy refuses to confide in anyone the sordid details of his potential family scandal until Lizzie asserts untruths about him – he is so upset at being misrepresented he must set things right in a letter by relating the facts (Te). Once he realizes how wrong he was, Darcy goes to great lengths to correct his mistakes.

Enneagram: 1w9

Darcy is judgmental at first, critical of Lizzie’s looks (her fine eyes cannot rule out her dreadful family) and the behaviors of her family, which cause her ridicule, contemptuous of Wickham’s behavior, and even manages to include an insult in his proposal (he likes Lizzie despite his reservations about her awful sisters and family). He instinctively pulls his best friend away from the woman he loves, out of a belief that Jane is a fortune hunter of no real affection for his friend, but when proven wrong, Darcy does go out of his way to apologize, explain himself, and make up for his faults. He brings Bingley and Jane back together, he fixes Lydia and Wickham out of a sense of duty and the desire to protect the Bennetts from shame, and he takes responsibility for keeping quiet about the man’s true character, leading Lydia to a relationship with him. He takes rejection and criticism as an excuse to work on his character, rather than simply walk away offended. He is also awkward, withdrawn, and prefers solitude, which allows him to open up and feel more at ease. Darcy is painfully aware of what is and isn’t appropriate, and does not wish to cause offense, but also can’t help picking apart the things that seem less than ideal.

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