Played by Agnes O’Casey, Maud from Lies We Tell can be interpreted as an ISTJ 5w6, a personality type defined by independence, caution, and analytical problem-solving. Rather than acting from emotion or impulsivity, Maud approaches her circumstances with careful observation, logical planning, and a strong need for control.
ISTJ 5w6 Characters
Why is Maud Ruthyn from Lies We Tell an ISTJ 5w6? Continue reading for my argument using cognitive functions! The headers for each section are clickable, so you can easily access more information about the dominant function and the Enneagram type, or discover more characters who share the type.
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Introverted Sensing
Maud is very settled into her current lifestyle, and attached to her home; it’s where her father and she lived together, she has many happy memories, and where she wants to live for the rest of her life. When Uncle Silas comes to stay with her and handle her affairs, she trusts him more than she should because of familial connections; he is related to her, so his intentions must be pure, because why would her father trust Silas to look after her, if he were untrustworthy? She wants her life to remain the same, and tries to restore it to how it “used to be” before Silas came, after he disrupts her routines; after his death, she sends away her cousins (directing that one shall go to Australia, as punishment for assaulting her, and the other should be in a finishing school, per the expected norms of the time). At the end of the story, based on her lived experience, she tells the viewer that everyone tells lies for reasons of their own, including herself.
Extroverted Thinking
After her father’s death, even though she is grieving, Maud still rejects her solicitors’ attempts to help her, and says she wants to look over all the financials herself; she will decide in which companies to invest, and she feels comfortable doing so. She often states her minds, or directs the lives of others without hesitation, such as setting out terms for what will happen to her cousins after their father’s death. Maud feels confident enough in her own logic to believe she can handle all of her father’s affairs in a systematic manner. But the biggest indicator of her strong Te comes after her assault; when Maud realizes she has no way to get rid of her cousin, and refuses to marry him (and “reward” his assault with money), she figures out that the only solution left is to negotiate terms with her uncle; she will give him a huge allowance and he will leave her alone. This “I get this, and you get that” is pure extraverted thinking; let us agree on terms and abide by them, and we both profit from it. You get money, and I get my peaceful life back. When suspicious of her uncle’s behavior, she sets up a trap to expose him and escape, by letting her maid drink a drugged cup and tucking her up into her own bed. When others try to talk about her uncle’s supposed criminal past, she points out that there was no conviction, and the fact that the murder happened inside a locked room has exonerated him.
Introverted Feeling
Maud knows her own mind, and stands up for her true feelings and opinions, even when Uncle Silas tries to control, manipulate, and silence her. She refuses to marry her cousin to his face, and continues to refuse to marry him after he assaults her (at his father’s instigation) in an attempt to force a marriage. She would rather raise their child alone, in a society that would condemn her for it, than be locked into a loveless relationship with an abuser. She never talks about the assault, other than to reference it in direct terms as part of an accusation. Many different times in the film, Maud sticks to her own convictions or opinions, shutting down other people, rather than go along with them; she tells one man she has no interest in marriage, to him or to anyone else. In dealing with her cousin Emily, it takes her time to open up and be friendly, since she remains distant at first, and unsure of what she wants to talk about with Emily. Even toward the end, she says that Emily will be going away, as planned, despite playing no part in her father’s sins; but we see that she has allowed her for a visit at Christmas.
Extroverted Intuition
At first, she is idealistic and welcomes her uncle’s presence in the house, thinking he will be an asset and here is an intelligent man she can talk to, and defending him from all allegations against him. Maud is not suspicious enough about him early on to sense that he is up to nefarious means; his change in personality is subtle, coming only after she rejects his son’s proposal.
The Enneagram 5
Maud is all about independence, solitude, and being left alone. She initially wants no one at the house, and does not like the sound of having relatives around; she is closed-lipped and does not easily open up to her cousin, Emily; even after they become fond of each other, Maud welcomes the day when she goes off to boarding school, since it means she will be alone again. She initially was willing to live with her uncle in the same house, despite his bad behavior, provided she never had to see him and he stayed in a separate wing. Because she trusts her own reasoning so much, Maud insists upon doing everything herself and rejects offers of help from a young man who just wants to make sure she is all right, only to realize she needs him later. Maud is extremely introverted and reclusive, hiding away in her library, going for long walks about the grounds, and feeling excited when her uncle knows about a lot of esoteric topics, since that means she can have an intellectual to discuss things with for once, and he can tell her all about his travels without her needing to leave the house.
The 6 Wing
Maud initially welcomes her uncle’s guidance within certain limits, since she trusts him (as it turns out, wrongly) more than her solicitors. She stands up for him, out of family loyalty, arguing that the murder accusations about him must be false, and he is a good person, only to start doubting him later, distrusting him, and acting out of fear to keep him and his horrible son away from her. When her cousin turns up late at night in her room, she is aware of the threat he poses, and distrusts the servants the next morning, since none of them or her cousin, who heard her screaming, came to her rescue. But she remains rebellious in the face of their abuse, refusing to give her uncle what he wants, while looking for a solution through negotiation (send your son away, and I’ll give you a lot of money). Her justifiable paranoia, distrust, and uncertainty mount as the story unfolds, leading to her eventually having to kill to save her own life, after setting up a test-trap to find out her uncle’s true intentions (switching places with her maid).
