William Shakespeare- INFJ?
- Thread starter foureyes
- Start date
May seem like an INFJ: strong moralistic themes. But most often he's rooting for just one underdog (INFP) rather than trying to uplift many (INFJ). And he likes to pit one against many or go for a "you and me against the world" theme.
-More N than S in the whimsical dialogues and the random connections in thought and speech of the characters (just think of Hamlet's famous speech and see how many possibilities he generates even in depression, or Shylock's speech and how he exemplifies his humanity in a repetitive pattern)
- Core Fi: compassion over justice, focus on inner drama and turmoil, upholding virtues and values like honesty, integrity (e.g. King Lear), sympathy for the underdog
- Some Te: after much inner struggle or being overwhelmed with emotion (Fi), Te must take over in the lives of the characters (e.g. Hamlet, Taming of the Shrew)
- More Ne: things get resolved more often through random happenings than resolute action, but there is always that character who will use Ni to discern what's going on
I intuit that he is more INFP than INFJ based on character portrayal. I get the sense that he helps us see characters through an Fi+Ne lens. I strongly feel the doting warmth, empathy and compassion of Fi, and see too much of random, humorous Ne.
I'm not taking my assessment too seriously though. . .
-More N than S in the whimsical dialogues and the random connections in thought and speech of the characters (just think of Hamlet's famous speech and see how many possibilities he generates even in depression, or Shylock's speech and how he exemplifies his humanity in a repetitive pattern)
- Core Fi: compassion over justice, focus on inner drama and turmoil, upholding virtues and values like honesty, integrity (e.g. King Lear), sympathy for the underdog
- Some Te: after much inner struggle or being overwhelmed with emotion (Fi), Te must take over in the lives of the characters (e.g. Hamlet, Taming of the Shrew)
- More Ne: things get resolved more often through random happenings than resolute action, but there is always that character who will use Ni to discern what's going on
I intuit that he is more INFP than INFJ based on character portrayal. I get the sense that he helps us see characters through an Fi+Ne lens. I strongly feel the doting warmth, empathy and compassion of Fi, and see too much of random, humorous Ne.
I'm not taking my assessment too seriously though. . .
I'd like to claim him here for us INFJs:
- 1. INFJs are known for being perhaps the best of all types at understanding other people, seeing beneath the surface. One of the main reasons Shakespeare is so acclaimed is because of his ability to create uncannily convincing and real characters for his plays. An INFJ I feel is the type most likely to be able to accomplish this consistently, and more pertinently, an INFP would probably struggle with this, as many on this thread seem to suspect he was.
- 2. He clearly displayed a preference for Se: wealth and status were obviously important to him as I believe he owned a number of properties later in his life and bought the largest house in his home town of Stratford for his family as soon as he could afford it.
- 3. I've read a book that analyzes his plays in-depth called "Shakespeare the Thinker" where it's shown how his thinking on certain questions that interested him developed over the course of several plays. Read this book and you'll become convinced that he could have easily made a great philosopher - apparently many of the ideas in his plays anticipate by hundreds of years later philosophical theories, he was that smart! And obviously, no stranger to the use of Ti. I'd also like to add that dramatizing his thoughts about certain subjects was arguably the main motivator for the plots of many of his plays - Ti was an integral part of his personality.
- 4. Clear evidence for Ni is obviously always going to be harder to find, but I believe the highly visual nature of Ni is evidenced in his strong preference for similes and metaphors of all kinds in his work. There's also its non-judgmental nature, allowing ideas of all kinds free reign where Fi would probably impose aesthetic restrictions... basically there's ample evidence for Shakespeare's undiscriminatory attitude towards ideas in his work - he even wrote a sonnet whose sole purpose (basically) was to play with the symmetrical (palindromic?) nature of the word "widdow" as it was written in his time (sonnet 9). His willingness to be fanciful is often criticized, apparently.
So in conclusion, he's almost certainly not Fi dominant, but more likely INFJ, or maybe ENFJ.
- 1. INFJs are known for being perhaps the best of all types at understanding other people, seeing beneath the surface. One of the main reasons Shakespeare is so acclaimed is because of his ability to create uncannily convincing and real characters for his plays. An INFJ I feel is the type most likely to be able to accomplish this consistently, and more pertinently, an INFP would probably struggle with this, as many on this thread seem to suspect he was.
- 2. He clearly displayed a preference for Se: wealth and status were obviously important to him as I believe he owned a number of properties later in his life and bought the largest house in his home town of Stratford for his family as soon as he could afford it.
- 3. I've read a book that analyzes his plays in-depth called "Shakespeare the Thinker" where it's shown how his thinking on certain questions that interested him developed over the course of several plays. Read this book and you'll become convinced that he could have easily made a great philosopher - apparently many of the ideas in his plays anticipate by hundreds of years later philosophical theories, he was that smart! And obviously, no stranger to the use of Ti. I'd also like to add that dramatizing his thoughts about certain subjects was arguably the main motivator for the plots of many of his plays - Ti was an integral part of his personality.
- 4. Clear evidence for Ni is obviously always going to be harder to find, but I believe the highly visual nature of Ni is evidenced in his strong preference for similes and metaphors of all kinds in his work. There's also its non-judgmental nature, allowing ideas of all kinds free reign where Fi would probably impose aesthetic restrictions... basically there's ample evidence for Shakespeare's undiscriminatory attitude towards ideas in his work - he even wrote a sonnet whose sole purpose (basically) was to play with the symmetrical (palindromic?) nature of the word "widdow" as it was written in his time (sonnet 9). His willingness to be fanciful is often criticized, apparently.
So in conclusion, he's almost certainly not Fi dominant, but more likely INFJ, or maybe ENFJ.
