Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Pan's Labyrinth- Ofelia (INFP)



Introverted Feeling (Fi): Ofelia is an independent, compassionate girl. She can come off as disobedient to her mother at times, but she cares strongly about Carmen thinks. She warms up quickly to Mercedes the servant, who humors her love of fantasy, while everyone else just sees Ofelia as a child or a nuisance. She can lack empathy- she can't understand how her mother could have felt lonely with Ofelia around and married an awful man like Vidal. She can't make herself care enough about showing up to the dinner in the dress Carmen worked on like she and the captain want to make the family look good, because helping the Faun is more important to her. She never directly says she dislikes Vidal, but she clearly is happy to "disappoint" by not going to the dinner. She eventually cannot bring herself to hand her brother over, even though he's caused much of her grief, because she feels it's wrong to harm an innocent in any way, nor can she tell Vidal that Mercedes is a rebel because she cares about her. She usually acts on her emotions, such as breaking away briefly from her mission to ask the Faun to help her sick mother.


Extroverted Intuition (Ne): Ofelia lives in her own fantasy world, sparked by the many fairy tales she reads. She's always got a story in her head, as implied by her mother requesting her to tell her unborn brother a story to settle him down. The Faun is shady, and she's never certain if he's lying or not. She is given a key to use in the Pale Man's lair, but guesses correctly that it actually opens a different door than the one she was told to use. She sees Mercedes outside and connects her with the rebels (again, correctly). In general, she's a creative problem solver: when she's about to be killed by the Pale Man, she quickly sees another escape out through the ceiling with her magic chalk, and when she needs the toad to swallow the stones, she sneaks a fat bug in with them, knowing he'll eat it that way, and slipping Carmen's sleeping medicine into Vidal's drink so she can grab her brother. The Faun tells her the only way to return home is to draw a little blood from her brother- which she senses is a lie, and refuses to.


Introverted Sensing (Si): Ofelia misses her life with just her mother and no captain back in the city. She has trouble adjusting to her country life living with a cold-hearted stepfather. She isn't shocked by seeing a real fairy, faun, and mandrake because she's familiar with such creatures from all her reading. She has initial trouble believing the Faun when he tells her she's Princess Moanna, because her father, an ordinary tailor, died years ago. She takes comfort from her books, the only bit of her old life she has, as well as hearing a reassuring child's lullaby from Mercedes when Carmen dies and Ofelia's childhood is well and truly gone now, without the only source of protection from the captain's cruelty.  Once she understands what kind of magical world she's dealing with, she works within it well and without question.


Extroverted Thinking (Te): Ofelia is able to believe the Faun when he presents proof (the moon birthmark on her shoulder). He lays out the plan to get her home, and she works at following through efficiently and in secret from everyone at the mill. She eventually comes to take responsibility for her infant brother and gets them both out. But most of the time, Ofelia has rather weak Te, and isn't usually prepared to consider or face possible consequences for her actions.

Note: Vidal is a classic ESTJ villain (his repression of his Ne really comes to bite him when he underestimates Mercedes), Mercedes is an INFJ, Carmen is an ISFJ, and the Faun is an xNTJ. Guillermo del Toro was obviously not thinking of MBTI when he made this movie, but it's a classic one of a dreamer vs. reality, so the character types are a bit stereotypical- the evil TJ villain, the maternal ISFJ, and the heroic NF.

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