MBTI Type: ISFJ

Marie writes down everything she is thinking and feeling, and many of the details of where they are going and what they are doing, in a diary in order to process her own feelings and keep a record of her thoughts. She feels drawn to Charles but also does not like to travel around and stay in bad places, just so they can get ahead, until she becomes more comfortable with the idea that this is all ultimately building toward them having a normal marriage and life and children in Paris. She also trusts the methods he has used before to help get them out of trouble—when they run out of money, she brings home two innocent travelers, trusting him to get what she needs. She is open and warm, able to disarm people and make them trust her, by pretending to be more concerned for their welfare than she is—but this also makes her easily inflicted by Charles and prone to caving in to his emotional manipulations. Marie is horrified to have nasty rumors flying around about them. She is upfront with her feelings and assertive about them from time to time, but then will turn around and reassure him that she loves him. At one point, she tells him off so severely that he beats her up for it, taunting him and berating him as a form of self-punishment. Marie also doesn’t like his “dirty, grubby little brown friend,” Ajay, and attempts to come between them and get rid of him. Throughout, Marie is trying to figure out what kind of a person Charles is, what kind of a person she is, what that says about herself, and she wants to know the details of his crimes even if it makes her uncomfortable. She takes him very much at face value for a long time, and has no idea about all the lies he has told her until his mother reveals the truth—that his first wife is not dead, about how he mistreated his brother and left him in jail to rot, etc. Marie has suspicions about his behaviors, but chooses to ignore them and believe people are not winding up dead, until she knows exactly what is happening, while it is happening.

Enneagram: 9w1 sx/sp

Marie throughout the story is trying to remain “calm,” even telling herself that whenever she feels upset – that she must stay calm, become calm. She turns up the music to drown out people crying for mercy in the next room. Though she feels deeply uncomfortable with Charles at first, because of his lack of emotional intimacy, she still ‘merges’ into him and his desires become her own. When he asks her to change her name and be someone else, she does it. When he asks her to charm people and disarm them, she does it. When he tells her to put drugs in people’s tea to make them sick, she does it. She just numbs herself to the things she does not like and refuses to think about them, because it makes her uncomfortable. But from time to time, her 1 wing kicks in – and she becomes worried that she is no longer herself, that he has made her into someone else, and that she is going to hell for what she has done. She keeps a rosary and prays, she wants to atone before she dies, and yet she still cares about Charles and desperately craves his approval and affection. It takes her a long time to get angry, but whenever it erupts, she is not careful in what she says… and yet, she does not leave. She stays. Inert, dependent, and reliant on him to look after her, even when she’s scared half to death of what he’s been doing.