INTJ 9w8 Characters

Catherine asserts early on that she can “see the future before it happens,” but ascribes this to “dreaming of the future.” She also often uses descriptive symbolism when expressing her internal vision – “one must be a fox to find the snares, and a lion to find the wolves.” In the final episode, her servant finally realizes that Catherine has been manipulating events in the direction she wants them to go, from the start, including playing mind games with her, to mislead her into convincing Mary Queen of Scots to return to Scotland, rather than stay in France and fight for the regency. She set up the maid to distrust her, and go to work for Mary, so that she could manipulate everything behind the scenes. But as is common for Ni-doms, she waited years before she made any moves, and is reluctant to be seen doing them. Her thinking is also extremely tactical and rational. She says that since she is not beautiful or refined, they must distract her potential husband and his family with finery and make them see that she is a good match because of her wealth and connections. She insists her uncle put most of her dowry budget into her gowns and jewels, to showcase their wealth, knowing that she can’t compete otherwise. Catherine is very good at seeing people’s potential and befriending them, by offering them something in return for their loyalty—a dukedom, forgiveness, or material assets. She also rather ruthlessly at times throws others under the wheels, allowing them to be held responsible for her own power-grabs (and subsequently executed, to protect her own skin). She is deeply emotional, but rarely reveals it—it only comes out in the moments of pain with her husband and in her confession of having been blinded by love, with no hope for any in return; and when she helps her son to die without pain through mercifully giving him poison so that he will sleep. Catherine shows very little lower Se, except that she impulsively changes her mind about her kidnapping scheme, and turns on her coconspirators, to get them killed and/or arrested when her son starts coughing up blood in the coach.

Enneagram: 9w8

A far cry from her actual historical counterpart, this Catherine is fairly… passive. She doesn’t change her circumstances at all; she tolerates Diane rather than working against her; she accepts her husband’s infidelity and doesn’t encourage him to impregnate her with any aggression, and she does nothing about the regency until forced to take action when her son falls ill. She “tolerates” way more than she should, and even when she makes a power grab, works behind the scenes in such a way that no one will hold her responsible, accuse her of anything, or can pin it on her. Catherine feels bad about throwing others to the wolves but is also indirect in her methods of revenge; even telling a maid to sneakily assert her authority by blowing up a kitchen oven in her face is an indirect, passive-aggressive form of “revenge.” But she’s also aware of power dynamics, who has it, and how she intends to get it, maneuvering herself when possible quietly to get what she wants. She starts out as naïve, and then learns to “trust no one,” as she tells her maid. The plot centers around her realizing she has agency in her own story and finally doing something about it.