MBTI Type: ESTJ
Henry is very logical and quite focused on business; he is also ruthless in how he rips apart other people’s logical arguments and leaves them with no recourse, as Helen notes when he dresses her up one side and down the other for her ideas about feminism. Much of his conversation revolves around profit gains and the success he has had in shipping, how that lowers other costs, etc. Margaret initially turns to him for help in finding a place to live, because she knows he will be ruthless in telling her how to handle their limited finances. But sadly, Henry is also emotionally detached and callous about a lot of things. He has no compassion for Mr. Bast, even though his own advice landed him in financial trouble; he doesn’t want anything to do with Helen when she gets pregnant out of wedlock, and expects his wife to just abandon her or ship her overseas to be someone else’s problem, fundamentally not understanding their emotional connection or family loyalties. He is a stodgy traditionalist in a lot of his views, and sexist to the extreme even by Victorian standards, believing women should be happy being at home and leave men the vote. Helen says he gave such a compelling argument on that front, he almost convinced her! He also holds onto his holdings, including Howards End, out of a faint whiff of sentiment, although ultimately he does not intend to live there due to the many memories attached to the place of his first wife. Henry has a very little intuition, other than to take a firm view that Margaret is too nice to people, and far too accommodating, and they will walk all over her as a result.
Enneagram: 3w4
Margaret says of Henry that he cares too much about “appearances,” and it’s true; he is something of a hypocrite in that he condemns in others what he lives out in secret but wants no one else to know about (his adulterous affairs prior to his marriage to Margaret). He is ambitious, driven, and does not like the family name to be embroiled in a scandal, so when he finds out Helen is pregnant out of wedlock, he intends to ship her out of the country and have everything done very “quietly.” He doesn’t even want her to spend the night at Howards End in case it might taint their reputation in some way, and is shocked when his wife stands up to him about it and insists she will never leave her sister alone. His 4 wing is something of an elitist snob; he likes to overturn other people’s arguments, often looks down on them for being from a lower class, and sees no reason to help them out of fixes they got themselves into (his rather heartless treatment of one of their friends, whom he told to get out of banking – then he did, and when it goes on to succeed, Henry says he never said any such thing and denies any of it was his fault, a 3ish refusal to admit to his involvement in the situation).
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