MBTI Type: ISFP

Sophia has a strong inner sense of how she should behave, and what she sees as being a good person, but is often at war with her feelings when it comes to her instincts and desire for love going against her own ethical behaviors. Though she wants to give her husband a child, when a local physician offers to impregnate her, she becomes offended, slaps him, and storms out of his office. But when she falls in lust with a painter, she has no such moral compunctions—she must act according to how she feels, so she conducts an illicit affair behind her husband’s back. Later, concerned after her maid has fallen pregnant that her very religious husband might turn her out of the house, Sophia concocts a daring but somewhat unrealistic plan to claim the child as her own—she fabricates morning sickness and labor pains, paying off a doctor to help her fake it, and then faking her own death in the hopes of living with her lover. It’s only after she has done this, and thought about all the pain she has caused her loving husband, that she feels remorse and wants to take it all back, heedless of the scandal it will cause and the trouble to everyone who concealed the truth—but then she sees her husband cradling “their” child and again changes her mind, choosing to run away to a nunnery to atone for her sins. Each time, she makes a decision from a place of self—in accordance with what she believes to be right. Though she cares about people, how they feel is somewhat secondary to her own need to be true to her feelings. She is opportunistic and somewhat changeable in her feelings and whims, at first not wanting to see the painter then changing her mind; she steals her maid’s cloak and runs off to see him, not thinking about how it might cast her maid in an unfavorable light should anyone mistake them (this causes her maid to lose her fiancé, who assumes she is having an affair with a painter). Much like Jan, she must act immediately on her feelings—rushing off to find him and make love once they’ve formed a silent connection. She agrees, somewhat in haste, to fake the pregnancy and later, her own death, at great personal risk to herself. She has a sense of what she wants for her life, but it can change given her moods. Though she comes up with a plan to save her and her maid both, and resolve all her problems, Sophia is not very rational about how it will work, who she will need to involve, and the potential repercussions of her actions if she’s caught.

Enneagram: 9w8 sx/sp

Sophia is resigned to her fate before she meets the artist—she has married a man she does not love and though not thrilled about their sex life and his impotence, tolerates him touching her every night. She wants to do what would please him, which is to bear him a child. But then she meets Jan and forms an instant connection to him—this other ISFP also understands her, needs her, wants her with his entire body, and there’s nothing for it but to merge into him, let his desires fuel her own, and consummate the relationship—often. She does not want to hurt her husband, but cannot help herself, and her resistance does not last long whenever she is around him. Her 8 wing shows occasional flits of aggression. She slaps a man about the head twice, and sets a hard boundary with him. After becoming lustful for Jan, while trying to resist, she has aggressive sex with her husband. And ultimately, she goes after whatever she wants.

Other Characters: her maid is an ESTP, her husband is an EFSJ, and her lover is an ISFP.