ESFJ 2w1 Characters
Dominant Extroverted Feeling – ease of emotional communication and shaping their actions around how their decisions affect others: I thought Helen was Te at first, but after five seasons, I’ve noticed how people are where she excels the most. She is easily able to connect to them, understand them, reason with them, and convince them to do “the right thing.” In one season, after finding out a couple of farmers are struggling and need their sheds cleaned out of a disease, she calls everyone in the district and convinces them to show up and help scrub out everything. Helen is eager to undertake the business side of Siegfried’s practice, until her meddling upsets him and then she backs off, rather than start an argument or cause constant consternation at the breakfast table. In season five, when James’ mother visits and bombards her with a constant stream of unsolicited advice, Helen just smiles and tries to find things in common to talk about (and winds up bonding over being a mother, the thought of “letting” go of her son, and a dog, whom she figures out is treating a toy like its pup because of a phantom pregnancy). She then teases James about taking her baby away from her. When her sister starts rebelling and asserting herself, Helen wants to talk it through, but starts out by reaffirming that her sister is growing up, and what a good job she is doing with the farm, before she become serious. She wants to talk about her feelings, and about James going off to war, in a way that he is trying to avoid. She can get upset at him, but is always forgiving and attentive not only to him, but to other people and their feelings. Helen quickly notices if others are quietly upset and tries to comfort them or find out what is wrong.
Auxiliary Introverted Sensing – working with what exists and their personal history to make an immediate impact: She cares a great deal about tradition and her upbringing in the Dales. When James talks about leaving and moving somewhere else, or claims he can relate to the farmers, she tells him that no, he can’t, because he wasn’t raised here and hasn’t had the life experience of a farmer (she has). Helen notices details and tracks information, pointing out farmer’s inconsistencies when they trash-talk her husband’s vet skills. She references back to her own experiences with everything, and tries to soothe her sister in the process (this will work, because it’s been done before and is reliable). She’s content to live a small life, attending to the needs of the farm, and look after her sister’s physical needs, to attend the local events, and sell a bull for stud at a profit. She asks James to vouch for it, without ever thinking the bull might not be any good or that it could endanger his reputation if it isn’t. Though he admits that her cooking is dreadful, she still makes the effort for him, and takes his confession with good humor.
Tertiary Extroverted Intuition – an interest in many different possibilities and in seeing connections between unrelated ideas: Helen wanted to see the bigger world, and it distresses her that her sister says she never wants to leave home. She feels like Jenny is cutting off her possibilities at fourteen and that it might be a mistake. Helen is very curious and interested in a lot of things… new ideas, methods of healing, books, etc. But she is also fearful of the unknown and cautious about the future, not wanting James to go off to war and potentially get killed with a young one on the way.
Inferior Introverted Thinking – critical under stress, can get hung up on the “logic” of things: Helen is very pragmatic, but also wants to understand people and situations that puzzle her. When a dog comes by itself to the door, scratches on it, and then wants into the examination room, she doesn’t just give it a toy and send it away, but sits there and thinks about what its behavior might mean, and how could it be explained through biological functions. She figures out from the swollen nipples that the dog is experiencing a phantom pregnancy and its hormones are treating the toy like a pup. She tries to get to the bottom of her sisters’ desires to go away and see the world.
Enneagram: 2w1
Enneagram 2 – a warm and caring helper, who focuses on doing all they can for specific chosen others: Helen looks to be useful wherever she can, and takes a great deal of pride in how she helps her father run the farm. She offers James advice when they first meet (that he should stand up to Siegfried, whose bark is worse than his bite). Whenever a task needs doing, she volunteers to do it. Helen tries to repay people with baked goods, but she’s such a rubbish cook, it winds up giving them a laugh instead. She is good-natured and forgiving of people’s faults, once she ascertains whether they realize the consequences of their actions. She feels that she ought to be more concerned with other people, and look after their best interests; numerous times, when she hears a farmer is having trouble, she goes up to their farm to help without being asked, and sometimes, without regard for her own tiredness or pregnancy. It takes her aback when the Land Girls arrive, and they no longer “need” her on the farm, because she felt important there.
1 wing brings in a gut-driven sense of being right and a desire to help others improve themselves: Helen wants to do the right thing, by her dad, by James, by Hugh, and by her family. She puts duty and others’ needs above her own desire to have her own life in the greater world and escape from home. She would rather James be honest with her than shelter her from the truth, whether that involves his feelings or his concerns about their bull. She never intended to sell Clive as ‘a good sire’ as a matter of deceit, and is horrified to learn the truth that he is lame and not good for much.
