MBTI Type: INFP

Viola gives herself over to and acts on her feelings, but always with the knowledge this will soon end and she will have to separate from her lover. She is a romantic idealist at heart, who “will have poetry in my life,” and who quickly acts to her own advantage in dressing as a boy and trying out for a play. She wants to do it before she marries and leaves the country, but also she wants to be involved in a theatrical production, because she loves them so much and wants to recite Will’s glorious words. She is in love with poetry and finds it erotic and full of meaning; she quickly falls in love with Will and gives herself to him, sure this is what she wants (for now). Due to being a 9 and having a less romantic-idealized outlook, Viola is more of a neutral thinker than Will, who frames everything in context of how it impacts him as a 4. Viola is just as in love with him as he is with her, but unlike Will, sees that she cannot marry a penniless poet, that the queen has agreed to her marriage, and that she has to obey the standards of society even when it goes against what her heart wants. It’s not just about her own feelings (though they are important), but what is manageable in the outside world; she knows the world she lives in, and its limitations and what it expects of her. She does what’s expected of her, including marrying a man she doesn’t care about, but then runs off to attend the play and impulsively choosing to perform Juliet on the stage even though it might get them all arrested. She never imagines that her presence could get them closed down, because it feels like what she wants and she isn’t especially aware of the consequences of her actions on other peopl.Viola grasps what the queen is telling her, even if it’s not obvious, and is obedient to her; she knows “Thomas Kent” must say his farewells to Shakespeare, and enter “her” new life. Before she goes, she and Will share ideas about his next play and how it might unfold, where she supplies him with a name for his hero. Viola doesn’t care about the standards of society or allow them to change how she feels; she decides to risk her reputation on the stage, and convinces her maid to support this endeavor; she knows sleeping with him could ruin her reputation, yet does it regardless. She is also able to keep her emotions in check in public, even when she is upset (though she frequently runs away to process them alone). Her understanding of how the world works is greater than Will’s; she comprehends that she cannot abandon her social role completely nor marry a penniless playwright, that her family fortune and circumstance force her to abide by certain standards, and she must marry the man her parents have chosen for her. The thought of abandoning her life in London for the Colonies frightens her, but she is willing to do it. Once having done her play, and found her true love, Viola returns to that which is expected of her, out of duty.

Enneagram: 9w1 sx/so

Viola is a deeply romantic person at heart, who craves love above all, but is also far more willing to put aside her own desires and go along with what others want than Will – she wants a happy ending for the lovers in his play, but also realizes that their own story cannot have one. She has to marry the man her parents choose and go away to the new world, where she will build a new life. She goes out of her way not to irritate other people, and to please her mother. She begs her nurse to help her, even though she knows her love affair with Shakespeare cannot end well. Her denial of self comes as much from her sense of duty as anything—she has something inside her (a super-ego wing) telling her that she must be obedient, a good daughter, and do what is proper and expected. She has to obey the queen and her commands, and renounce her own selfish desires. She is quite hurt when she finds out Will has a wife, but then when she thinks him dead, realizes that she didn’t care about the immorality of it—she only mourned never seeing his face again. She becomes somewhat anxious under stress, showing a tendency to shift into 6ish suspicion and a desire to be cautious and make rational decisions.

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