MBTI Type: ISFP

Bella knows what she wants – Edward. She teems with internal emotion and finds it difficult to share those feelings with her father once she loses Edward temporarily; she never once wavers from her desires. She tends to blame herself and put herself down (Edward says, “I tell you I can read minds, and you think something is wrong with you?”), because she has a strict moral / ethical code that she finds it hard to live up to. She tends to “show” her love for others (through cooking, cleaning, etc., for them – Fi and Te) rather than telling them outright. She refuses to let anyone talk her into or out of anything she feels strongly about; though she cares for Jacob, she’s immune to his attempts to change her mind about Edward (and favor him); she defies her entire Cullen clan in a refusal to abort her daughter even when it seems the baby is killing her. Bella is impulsive and tends to live in the moment; her focus is almost entirely on what she sees and what she can physically do (how Edward looks, and how she is in comparison; on keeping her father’s house clean, tidying things, cooking, and fulfilling her senses). She is impulsive – and unafraid to put herself in danger. Bella tells Edward often she “is not afraid of [him]” even after he warns her he’s  a vampire and could hurt or kill her. She pushes him to try new things and become physical; once married, after she overcomes her nerves, Bella greatly enjoys sex. She puts herself in harm’s way to protect the people she cares about – and is exhilarated rather than frightened to experience all it is to be a vampire. During her depressive period, Bella feels most alive when engaged in fully sensory pursuits – leaping from cliffs, motor biking, etc. She becomes convinced of what she wants (to live forever with Edward) and refuses to let anything or any other option deter her from that. Bella has a strong sense of intuition about the core motivations of Edward’s behaviors (“I know who you are,” “You hide from people because…”); she has strong instincts about who is and is not trustworthy. Bella can put connections together and discern motivations at times, but tends to focus more on how she feels in the present moment (Se); in her depression, she becomes convinced nothing will ever change in her future, that she cannot go on without him. She has no problem putting people in their place when they push her too far; she tells Edward that his yo-yo emotions “are giving me whiplash.” She tells Jacob off for abandoning her and not talking to her for months. She tends to act on her feelings. In the final book, she is quite effective at coming up with a “plan” in case their entanglement with the Volturi goes badly.

Enneagram: 9w8

Bella is a good example of a sexual 9 in how she has no distinct sense of self or separate identity outside of Edward; all she can think about, talk about, or be about, is him and his presence, to which she compares herself unfavorably, as if she is a mere afterthought in comparison to how dazzlingly beautiful, spectacularly strong, and amazing he is. When he leaves her, it causes her to fall into void of nonexistence, since she cannot bear the separation—she has “become” him, and having him ripped away from her almost kills her. She is in turns, passive and proactive—she allows Alice to pretty much do whatever she likes about her wedding, her clothes, etc., in a state of passivity, but also throws up and establishes barriers whenever she feels threatened. Bella is often furious and telling people off—she punches Jake in the face for kissing her without her permission (and breaks her hand), she throws him out of the house for imprinting on her daughter, she yells at Edward for taking the motor out of her car in an attempt to prevent her from seeing the wolf pack, and she initially tells off Edward for being so inconsistent (“your mood swings are giving me whiplash”). But Bella is “Switzerland, okay?” She’s neutral territory, and she often calms down into a state of acceptance. She can be stubborn in clinging to what she wants, but also in abdicating herself—it’s fine, really, that her own child is ripping her apart from the inside out, that she has to drink blood to sate its bloodlust, that it just broke her rib, and that she wakes up from her honeymoon covered in bruises, because being with Edward makes her so happy.

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