MBTI Type: ISFJ

Cécile is sweet, naïve, and innocent of the ways of the world until Valmont gets his clutches into her, and even then she turns to a woman for advice that she has known to be a good friend in the past, for a sense of how to behave. She easily adapts to Madame’s encouragement for her to take her ‘sessions’ with Valmont as pleasurable, educational experiences; once she’s told they are ‘all right,’ she becomes less afraid and more eager to sleep with him, showing how malleable her morals are to what society sees as acceptable (if everyone does it, and this is how Madame does it, I can do it too and it’s all right). Her growing up in the convent means she has no idea about men and women, or what is or what is not appropriate; she’s shocked to learn her lover once bedded her mother and finds it humorous that she lives in state of pretended virtue. Cécile tends to trust people on face value; she has no idea what Valmont intends for her when he asks for her room key (she either doesn’t know about his reputation or doesn’t think about it), nor does she anticipate the fall-out of her decision to leave her door unlocked for his “education” to continue. Cécile hastens to confide her feelings in other people and seeks validation from them. When Valmont rapes her, she writes to her confidante and tells her everything. She confesses even though she was saying “no,” she was still doing what he wanted. She wants to know if it’s all right if she writes to her music teacher (after they exchanged love notes). She has trouble concealing her feelings, but also hides her desire to marry the boy she loves from her mother out of fear of disapproval or reprimand.

Enneagram: 9w1 so/sx

Part of what makes Cécile such an easy target for Valmont is how compliant and easygoing she is. She tries in every possible way to avoid conflict with everyone, from putting aside her own needs and wishes around her mother (to keep her from being upset with her) to being frustrated with herself for ‘doing what Valmont wanted’ even though she didn’t want to do it. She found herself yielding to him, and merging into him, rather than fighting him off, and simply surrendered after a time. She is also naïve and trusting, assuming the best of people until they prove her wrong—she either didn’t know about Valmont’s reputation with women or assumed he had no interest in her, so she allowed him access to her room and then hadn’t the heart to take back her key, tell her mother about it, or keep him out other than locking her door. Her 1 wing makes her not like what is happening, and worry about it being “sinful,” until Madam puts her mind at rest.