MBTI Type: ESTP

Prior to being turned into a Beast, the Prince made a surface-value judgment about an old woman in need of shelter, ‘sneering at her gift’ of a rose in exchange for a warm place to sleep. He showed no interest in considering where she came from or what might drive her to need his charity, and only begged her for mercy after she revealed herself as a ‘beautiful enchantress’ – showing the Beast’s tendency to react and live in the moment, heedless of the consequences of his actions. He shows this intense adaptability and ‘presence’ in his interactions with Belle and her father – he finds him wandering in the castle and immediately imprisons him, then immediately exchanges Belle’s life for that of her father. He has to be prompted to offer Belle a more pleasant place to stay and reminded that doing so will make her like him better, upping the odds that she might fall in love with him and ‘break the spell.’ He blows up at her, causing her to run away, then immediately feels remorse and goes after her, risking his life to fight off the wolves and save her from them. Just as they are falling in love, the Beast offers to set her free to go home and tend to her sick father, showing his ongoing tendency to be enormously impulsive and not think through many of his decisions. But that was the right one, for it proves his love for her, which is why she comes back to him at the end. The Beast uses cleverness to attack Gaston, tricking him by pretending to be part of the castle, but also mercy, in that he has started to adapt to Belle’s sense of ethics and morality. He routinely shows low Fe behaviors – losing his temper and being apologetic for it, adapting his behavior to hers, and admitting his changing feelings to his servants, while not really understanding emotional connections at all (he doesn’t “even allow” Belle to say goodbye to her father, since it didn’t occur to him that she would care, despite her being willing to give up her life for him).

Enneagram: 8w7 sp/sx

Everyone around the Beast points out that he ‘must learn to control his temper’ … which he has a hard time with, because he is literally on the verge of an explosion all the time. He engages in countless aggressive power tactics with Belle (demanding she eat with him, instead of asking her nicely, then roaring at her through the door, and saying if she won’t eat with him, she won’t eat at all). He angrily keeps people out of the castle and out of his home in the west wing (for fear they might knock the precious petals off his rose) – the embodiment of an 8 being hyper-aggressive and protective of his private space. When she tries to nurse his wounds after the wolf attack, the Beast snaps at her for having left the castle in the first place, and accuses her of being ‘difficult’ (it’s all her fault, I am not to blame here), showing his lack of ability to be vulnerable and 7 wing unwillingness to accept the blame or admit that he has done anything wrong. Throughout the story, the Beast genuinely grows toward 2 – he becomes more selfless, generous, compassionate, and willing to forgive, even intending to allow Gaston to live after Gaston attempts to kill him, out of devotion to Belle.

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