Over the Garden Wall: Beatrice (INTJ)

Beatrix didn’t get too much screen time, so her personality type was a bit harder to pin down. This is what we eventually decided on.

Ni:

“I guess in some ways I’m trying to get home too.”

“Something feels off about this place.”

Beatrice appears to be an Ni dominant. She is prone to speaking in a vague fashion. After Wirt explains that they’re just trying to get home, he then inquires after her goal. She replies by saying that in some ways, she’s trying to get home as well, which is ultimately a very loose and abstract interpretation of her motivations. Additionally, she mentions sowing money into clothing, which could potentially be a sneaky and unconventional Ni way to hide spare cash.

Her language is very pointed and direct (partially due to Te, and partially due to Ni.) Beatrice is also prone to voicing the negative impressions that a place gives her. She states multiple times that a village they are visiting feels off. Beatrice also gets frustrated by any delays or anything not directly related to her goal, up until she herself starts hesitating and begins to allow the delays.

She also gets frustrated with Wert’s inability to read between the lines properly or pick up on unspoken queues. An example of this is when she frees them from their shackles, and Wert thinks they’ve abandoned him.

Te:

“Fine. I’ll do everything.”

“Blue birds have a short life span. You two are literally killing me every moment I’m forced to spend with you.”

Beatrice is very harsh, blunt, and critical. She bosses the boys around for the majority of the time that she is with them, demonstrating a Te user’s desire to be in control. However, she gives up relatively easily when they won’t listen, and then just goes off by herself and waits them out, suggesting not a dominant Te. (Example at the tavern.) She nags and expresses frustration every time they won’t listen, resigning herself to having to do whatever it is personally. She has a tendency to insult Wirt due her perceiving him as incompetent, lacking in intelligence, or a pushover. While she does manipulate the boys in a sense, (via lying), she never attempts to do so in any emotionally persuasive fashion, and she fights against any of Wirt’s attempts to connect to her personally, suggesting a Thinker.

Lastly, Beatrice expresses surprise and questions anything that appears irrational or doesn’t line up with reality. For instance, she berates herself for talking to a horse, expresses surprise at the lipstick on the horse, and gets suspicious when she hears someone chopping wood at night.

Fi:

Beatrice’s Fi appears to be tertiary. The fake motivation that she uses as an excuse for supposedly helping Wirt and Greg is very Fi in nature. She claims that she is honor bound to help them because they saved her. While obviously this is a lie, the fact that this is her go-to reason to use suggests an Fi mentality, albeit one that she is smothering. Beatrice also is unable to confront her family after accidentally getting them cursed to be bluebirds until she has righted her wrong, due to intense feelings of shame and the potential detriment to her image.

Beatrice has very loose standards for behavior, which is a manifestation of her low Fi. She is willing to lie, steal, and betray the boys in order to achieve her goal, although as she grows closer to the boys, she begins to question the decision. Beatrice backs out later because she realizes that Adelaide has much crueler intentions then she let on.

Se:

When Beatrice initially gets her and her family turned into blue birds, she likely falls into the grip of inferior Se, hence running from her family to solve their problem rather than confronting them directly first. In addition, the panicked and uncontrolled state she falls into in moments like when they’re trying to find spare change to steal could potentially be a manifestation of inferior Se. She starts grabbing things, knocking them over, throwing them on the ground, and breaking them in her haste to find what she wants. This demonstrates the physical nature of Se in addition to a potential Se grip. Lastly, she seems to want to delegate and bark orders, rather than do things herself. She’s shown expressing verbal frustration when finally having to do something herself.