Halloween MBTI: The Others- Grace Stewart (ISTJ) [Spoilers]

Introverted Sensing: Grace is pragmatic and methodical, the voice of reason (or so she thinks) to her children’s “silly” ideas. The house has always been managed a certain way, and expects her new servants and children to follow her rules.  She’s happy with this routine. She adheres to Catholicism and recalls details about it when teaching, disciplining, or comforting her children (and gets angry when Anne corrects what she knows about purgatory). It is primarily Grace’s roots in reality and her strong memories of how life used to be in the house was before her and her children’s deaths that keeps her from seeing she is, in fact, dead.

Extroverted Thinking: Grace has a smooth, efficient way of managing her household by herself and gives orders easily. There’s a place for everything, and everything in its place. Upon the arrival of her new servants, she assigns each of them to certain jobs and rooms that will suit each person best, and doesn’t stop to make many pleasantries when things need to be organized. She usually controls her emotions, keeping “a cool head” and doing what needs to be done. She makes them study in separate rooms for talking too much, and makes Anne stand and read aloud from the Bible for three days straight until she confesses to lying. Grace trusts what she knows, and doesn’t believe anything until she sees evidence of it herself, insisting things have explanations (“Something traumatic must have happened to [Lydia]” to make her mute).

Introverted Feeling: If Grace feels uncomfortable talking about something, she won’t talk about it, and gets annoyed if pushed to do so. Her own set of values are very important to her and she doesn’t change them for anyone. Catholicism matters deeply to her, and she tries to instill its values in her children. She doesn’t express her feelings or affection towards the kids much through words, instead comforting Nicholas with a rosary and kiss. She sobs in private when she misses her husband. Despite being cold sometimes, she’s extremely protective of her children. She is offended when someone makes her feel incompetent, such as when she thinks Mrs. Mills suggested it was Grace who unlocked the door and endangered the kids and when her daughter calls her out for being wrong about what the Bible says.

Extroverted Thinking: Grace dislikes “fantasies”, “strange ideas”, and refuses to believe Anne about the “strangers” for most of the movie. She’s disturbed by the superstition of photographing dead relatives. But she does try to open her children’s minds more about Hell and describes it imaginatively, and shows them another point of view about denying Jesus. She senses there is something more to Lydia’s muteness than what Mrs. Mills told her and senses something that isn’t human in the junk room. By the end of the movie, Grace has finally accepted her fate and opens her mind to the idea of the afterlife. She admits she isn’t sure whether or not Heaven or Hell are real.