MBTI Type: ESFP

Hansel wants a simple life and intends to live by his strength; he wants to learn to cut down trees and use an ax, and practices around the witch’s house whenever he has the opportunity. Unlike his sister, he reads things on a surface level and feels discomfort with her probing around beneath the surface—he thinks she is looking for trouble and reasons to be unhappy with the present situation, when he would rather just interact with people, eat their food, sleep in a warm bed, and have a pleasant day in the woods. He doesn’t understand why they can’t go home or shouldn’t sneak into a woman’s house and steal her food. He quite happily helps her out with chores around the place. Hansel is a warm and good-hearted boy, but also somewhat stubborn and not always thoughtful about what he does; he cuts down young trees for the fun of it (as practice) and feels hurt and scared when his sister inexplicably throws him out of the house and tells him to “go off, then” when he becomes scared of staying there any longer. He starts to think after a while that she is right and there is something strange and sinister going on around them, but he doesn’t speculate on what that might be.

Enneagram: 7w6 so/sp

Hansel is a good-natured and optimistic child, who wants to have fun wherever he goes, who assumes the best of everyone he meets, and who does not want to think ill of anyone or deal with hard things. He finds it hard to think that their mother has turned them out, and that he cannot simply go home at the end of the story and be welcomed by her. He doesn’t see anything strange or weird about the witch for awhile, because she offers him wonderful cakes and foods and delicious things to drink, and a soft warm bed to sleep in. He rather enthusiastically volunteers to cut wood for her, insisting he knows how to use an ax, when this is a falsehood and he doesn’t know how to chop down trees. Over time, his 6 wing starts to quiver a bit. He becomes more uneasy and suspicious, and downright hysterical when he thinks he has lost the support and guidance of his sister. He doesn’t want to be alone or go at life without her, and relies on her to take care of him.