Thursday, November 21, 2013

Fellow ISFJs, or, I'm Going to My Thoughtful Spot Now

So, you've probably heard of the Meyers-Briggs personality tests by now.  Hannah, aka Indigo Montoya, did a neat post on her blog here in which she showcased a bunch of fictional characters she loves that share her personality type, which is INFJ, so a lot like mine, since I'm an ISFJ.  Just so you kind of know what that means, here's a breakdown:

  • Introversion -- tend to be quiet and reserved
  • Sensing -- tend to prefer concrete information to abstractions
  • Feeling -- tend to place more emphasis on personal considerations than abstract information
  • Judging -- tend to be planners and well-organized

ISFJs are also called "the defender" or "the knight."  Remember a couple weeks ago when I said I feel really protective of Thor?  I get that way a lot for characters I love.  And real-life people I love.  Do not mess with my kids!  I will go medieval on your hindquarters.

So here are some famous fictional characters who supposedly are also ISFJs:

Ophelia in Hamlet
(Julia Stiles in the 2000 version of Hamlet)

Hero in Much Ado About Nothing
(Kate Beckinsale as Hero in the 1993 version)

Bianca in Taming of the Shrew
(Larisa Oleynik as Bianca in 10 Things I Hate About You, which is a modern Shrew)

What I find super interesting about those three is that they popped up on a lot of lists that I found, all three very solidly ISFJ... and those are my three favorite Shakespeare plays!  But those are very far from my favorite characters in those plays.  Hmm.

So here are some others that are commonly agreed to be ISFJs like me.  And I'm very fond of all of them.

Dr. Watson from all the Sherlock Holmes stories
(Edward Hardwicke as Watson, with Jeremy Brett as Holmes)

Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings
(Sean Astin as Sam)

Winnie-the-Pooh


Fred from Angel
(Amy Acker as Winnifred "Fred" Burkle on Angel)

Captain America/Steve Rogers from The Avengers comics and movies
(Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America)

Chewbacca from Star Wars 


Neville Longbottom from Harry Potter
(Matthew Lewis as Neville)

Colossus/Piotr Rasputin from X-Men comics and movies
(Daniel Cudmore as Colossus in X-2)

Desmond Hume on Lost
(Henry Ian Cusick as Desmond)

Elinor Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility
(Emma Thompson as Elinor)

Anne Elliot from Persuasion
(Amanda Root as Anne)

Interestingly, I come up as Elinor in about half the "Which Jane Austen character are you?" quizzes I take.  And as Anne Elliot in the others.  Guess those must be really accurate!

And here are some real people that supposedly were ISFJs, though I'm not going to add pictures because this post is already reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally long:

John Wayne
Louisa May Alcott
James Stewart
A. Conan Doyle
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Robert E. Lee

As you can imagine, the fact that John Wayne may also have been an ISFJ makes me fell all warm and glowy :-)  Of course, there's some disagreement about a lot of these, especially the fictional characters, so I tried to only list ones here that showed up on multiple lists as ISFJs, or who were more often classed that way than as other things.

If you want to take the Meyers-Briggs test yourself, there's a free version available here.  Or just Google for it.

9 comments:

  1. I'm so pleased that I inspired you to do this great post and it looks like you got your fair share of great characters as well! I especially love Desmond and Neville! :) We have almost the exact same favourite Shakespeare plays as well. I've been meaning to tell you this but Hamlet is absolutely my favourite Shakespeare play. I even think it must be the greatest tragedy/play ever written and Hamlet is one of my favourite fictional characters ever. Benedict Cumberbatch is apparently in talks to star in Hamlet next year. I'm fairly certain that if I'm lucky enough to get tickets for it that I would die of happiness! Hopefully there'll do a cinema screening of it. Much Ado is my second favourite Shakespeare play and my favourite comedy. My third favourite Shakespeare play is Henry V.

    I also took the test you put up. I came up as an INFJ/ENFJ. I'm absolutely certain I'm an INFJ now.

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    1. High five! Another Hamlet-phile! That is so cool that BC might be doing the play next year! Wow, I really hope they film it if he does. I saw Jude Law in it a few years ago, and he was amazing, but there's no filmed version available. Which is a terrible shame, because it had one of the best Horatios I've seen.

      And honestly, Henry V really ties with Taming of the Shrew for my third-favorite.

      The first time I heard of these tests was when my hubby took it for a work seminar. He took it for himself (he's an INTJ, IIRC) and then took it "as" me and came up ISFJ. Brought it home and had me take it, and he was dead on. I've come up ISFJ on all 3 that I've taken now.

      Anyway, do you have any favorite filmed version of Hamlet?

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  2. The David Tennant version on DVD is my favourite filmed version of Hamlet although to be fair it's the only I've seen. I read the play first and then I saw DT in the role and I thought he was amazing, especially in that big scene with Gertrude where he berates her for her affair. I prefer DT as Benedick in Much Ado now and I think BC would probably make for a better Hamlet. I still loved Tennant in that role though. He was intensely sympathetic in the role but he was also funny! That's one of the things that I love most about Hamlet's character. I find him so hilariously witty and sarcastic. I've got a friend who's seen quite a few productions of Hamlet and he was saying that a lot of the time the actors don't seem to grasp that Hamlet is actually supposed to be funny and play him as having no sense of humour - which is a terrible shame. Hopefully you can recommend me some more versions where that isn't the case? :)

    Since you love Henry V as well I've GOT to recommend the BBC's The Hollow Crown to you in case you haven't already seen it. Their Henry V is fantastic and Tom Hiddleston is fantastic in it. But Ben Whishaw is even better. He broke my heart in Richard II. His abdication scene alone is worth buying The Hollow Crown for. He won a BAFTA for the role as well.

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    1. Tennant is an awesome Hamlet! And oh man, Patrick Stewart is totally my favorite Claudius. He's quite chilling.

      I haven't seen Tennant as Benedick -- didn't even realize he did the play, so went hunting, and I did find an amusing ad for it, but can't find any region-1 DVD versions. Might have to do the instant-viewer thing on the one site I found. I do have Joss Whedon's version of MAAN to watch first, though.

      My library has The Hollow Crown, so it's on my to-watch list now. They have Henry IV 1 & 2, Henry V, and Richard II -- is that all of it? I love Tom, of course, and Ben Whishaw was way fun in Skyfall. Thanks for the recommendation!

      Man, my to-watch list gets longer and longer and longer.

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    2. I still need to watch Whedon's Much Ado yet as well. And yes those all are of the plays that are in The Hollow Crown and I think you'll love it :) It was a BBC/Universal Studios co-production and I'm really hoping that THC's success will encourage them to do more Shakespeare adaptations.

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  3. It's cool Arthur Conan Doyle and Dr. Watson are both supposed to have been ISFJ's, I always had the idea in the back of my head that Doyle was like Watson. :)
    You have the same personality type as Captain America! Awesome! :)
    I'm an INTJ, but I'm not certain of the accuracy of that... I and S were close, and so were T and F. :)

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    1. I must admit that different sites listed Captain America as different things, but I found three that agreed on ISFJ, so I decided they must be right ;-)

      N and S are really close for me too, in the last test I took.

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  4. Back when you first posted this, the link to the test wasn't working, but it is now. So, since that was a different test than all the others, took it... INFP. LOL. Still consistent. Now, I need to go searching for fictional characters who match again. :-D

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    1. Glad it's working again! I'd say you're a very solid INFP indeed.

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