ESFP 3w2 Characters
Dominant Extroverted Sensing—living in the moment, hands-on opportunism, and learning by doing: Marie lives an extravagant lifestyle. She cares about fashion and setting trends, and is always on the cusp of whatever is new and exciting, whether that includes who paints her portrait or her desire to set up and furnish a beautiful home for herself and the children away from court where she can meet her lover. Marie carries on an affair despite knowing it is treasonous and only worries about her husband finding out and divorcing him, rather than how it might be depicted in the public eye. She finds hunting and horseback riding exciting. She chooses parties and outings over books, and she does her best work when at gala events and out dancing, to advance diplomacy. Marie loves to playact in her spare time, spend hours in nature and in her pretend cottages, to gamble, spend money, and indulge in beautiful gifts for her friends. Her spending habits make her the face of the bankruptcy of France in the Revolution, when a fellow courtier sets her up as the thief of the most expensive necklace in history.
Auxiliary Introverted Feeling—a self-knowledge and a desire to live under one’s personal values: Marie may defer to others with greater power than her, but on a few matters of principle, she refuses to back down from her own feelings. When she finds out Madame du Barry is a former prostitute and only at court to sexually please the king, Marie refuses to speak to her or address her in public, even when it becomes a diplomatic incident. Others beg her for the sake of the alliance to patch up their feud, but Marie cannot force herself to do it and continues to refuse, until the king threatens her in private. She can get so caught up in her own feelings that she’s neglectful of her friends, such as when she chooses new “favorite” courtiers, without thinking about how it will affect the current favorites; she replaces the princess with another woman and has to be told by her brother that you have “treated your friend appallingly” before she recognizes what she did was hurtful and apologizes to her. Marie tries every way she can think of to make inroads with Louis, but eventually tires of it and insists he do some of the work for a change.
Tertiary Extroverted Thinking—a desire to assess the facts of a situation and get things done efficiently: She is impulsive and headstrong, losing interest in people and leaving them behind, and showing no desire not to rush France forward into a new way of being. Marie tires abruptly of court mourning and demands they change it from a year to a few weeks, so she can get on with the business of “ruling.” She then replaces almost all the ladies in her household, ushering out the “old” regime to make way for the new one. Marie can be quite caustic under stress and/or when she’s not paying attention to diplomacy (calling him limp and unaffected, accusing him of doing nothing useful, and insulting people to their face). She can also detach better than Louis in order to handle matters of state; when he is destroyed by the death of their son, she appoints herself the temporary regent of France, makes excuses for him, makes political speeches and decisions for him, and tries to create inroads with their enemies to stop the Revolution.
Inferior Introverted Intuition—a desire to experience deeper meaning and a singular path, but sometimes being wrong in their intuitive conclusions: Marie shows almost no forward thinking; she spends most of her time trying to change herself to suit the surrounding situations, rather than anticipating them and planning for them. She is oblivious to them being deep in debt until her husband tells her; she does not know that her best friend lets her bleed out in a corridor to secure a position for her lover at court. Marie is surprised when her good name is used against her. She keeps the letters from her lover and only frets about how they might be used against her when they get stolen. She, perhaps foolishly, does not leave France until it is too late to prevent her arrest, by assuming they can turn the situation around to their favor.
Enneagram: 3w2
Enneagram 3—a driven, ambitious person who wants to succeed to the best of their ability: At first I thought Marie a 6, because she had so much second-guessing and insecurity when she came to court, but after season two, she has brought out more of her 3ish thinking. Marie tries hard to be whatever appeals to other people, to set trends, and to show off her good taste. When people disapprove of her appearance, she alters it and switches up her hair, then gets frustrated when people call that and her new gown “hideous,” because she can never seem to win them over or give them what they want. Awareness of how she and Louis are talked about at court after their marriage, she tries to get him to do his duty before he feels ready. She is quite assertive and self-confident as time goes on, taking on the regency of France when her husband is sick with grief, ordering people out of the palace, and proactively taking steps to solve the rising tide of resentment against them. But her arrogance wins her enemies when she refuses to bow to the king’s mistress, to make up with Cardinal Rohan, who has powerful friends.
2 wing brings in a helpfulness and a desire to be seen as a good person: Marie feels deeply for the poor and wants to do good by them; she insists on giving away as much bread and grain as possible, both because it’s needed and she knows how it looks to let their subjects starve. Her friends often receive lavish gifts of diamonds, hot chocolate, and other treasures. Marie gets angry at them when they ask her for more, because they are not appreciative of what she has given (it is enough, and they need to be content). When public opinion turns against her, she tries to win it back with a portrait of herself and her children, by representing herself as a “mother.” Though distant from her own emotions at times (a 3 trait), Marie also feels intensely protective of her children.
