INFP, the Healer, the Dreamer, the Clarifier
I fully expected all the sisters in this series to be SJs—the group known as the Guardians, who hold society together and keep the lights on for the rest of us. Drop an Artisan type like Deloris in the middle of them, and behold! Hijinks ensue.
And yet, floating around all of these highly disciplined nuns, I discovered a happy little shy fellow INFP. If this were a stage musical (which the movie became eventually), she would be called the ingénue. In this movie, she’s called Sister Mary Robert.
Dominant Function: Introverted Feeling (Fi), “Evaluate the Experience”
“Do you know how sometimes it’s as if you have to be yourself or you’ll just burst?”
The dialogue is a little on the nose, but it succinctly describes the life struggles of a shy Fi-dom. Mary Robert has always known that the life of a nun is her calling, but she hasn’t found a meaningful way yet to express her purpose. She keeps quietly to herself and does barely more than lip-sync along with the choir.
In a quiet little scene late at night, Sister Mary Robert confesses to Sister Mary Clarence: “I’ve always felt that there’s something inside of me that I want to give. Something that’s only me and nobody else. Does that sound like a terrible thing? Like pride?”
Mary Clarence (aka: Deloris) tells her no, that doesn’t sound like pride at all. Being a fellow Fi-user, Deloris understands the driving need to express one’s individuality. Part of her mission becomes bringing Sister Mary Robert’s personality out of its hiding place.
A mistake I see made often when people try to distinguish between Fi and Fe goes something like this: “Fe is concerned about others,” while “Fi is concerned about itself.” Empathy versus selfishness.
Not quite.
Sister Mary Robert still wants to do good in the world for others, but it has to be something personally meaningful, something that feels uniquely valuable. An Fe-dominant character like Sister Mary Patrick (she’s up next) will throw themselves enthusiastically into every opportunity that presents itself. An Fi-dom like Mary Robert will happily join in the same pursuits, but more pensively, more deliberately. Both want to do good, but one is more choosy, while the other is up for anything.
Sometimes you need go-getters like Mary Patrick to get everyone moving—or else nothing would ever get done—and sometimes you need a person like Mary Robert to carefully evaluate the goal to make sure it’s truly worth it.
With both of these strong Feeling-led women on board, the choir at St. Katherine’s was bound to do something special. They just needed the catalyst of an ESFP like Mary Clarence to get them started.
Auxiliary Function: Extraverted Intuition (Ne), “Conceptualize From the Experience”
Sister Mary Robert immediately latches on to Mary Clarence as a bearer of new and exciting possibilities. A more mature intuition might have guessed at Mary Clarence’s true identity, but Mary Robert is still young and idealistic enough that she sees nothing but promise and goodness in her new friend. When Deloris sneaks out at night, Mary Robert is the first to follow her, believing that she’s headed out into the community to serve the people.
Though her strong Fi makes her timid, Mary Robert is eager to try new things. She welcomes Mary Clarence’s direction in the choir, and with the right encouragement, learns to belt it out so they can hear her in the back rows. She happily joins all the new activity Mary Clarence inspires, excited to finally find ways to authentically connect with the community around her.
Even when she learns who Mary Clarence really is, she still believes the best of her, and encourages Reverend Mother and the other sisters to go rescue her.
Tertiary Function: Introverted Sensing (Si), “Relive the Experience”
Sister Mary Robert keeps an alarm clock given to her by her brother when she was a little girl. It makes her laugh and helps her get up on time. She gives the sentimental gift to Mary Clarence, a deeply personal and meaningful gesture for an INFP.
She’s also able to clearly recall the name of the place Deloris’ kidnappers take her, despite the commotion of the moment, which points Detective Southern and the sisters in the right direction to save Deloris.
Inferior Function: Extraverted Thinking (Te), “Organize the Experience”
Sister Mary Robert follows more than she leads, as long as she trusts the person leading—thus, her strong attraction to Mary Clarence, and maybe even her choice of vocation in a place that provides the structure she needs. She confesses to being bad at getting up on time as a child, and to feeling that, “All my life everybody seems to be doing or catching on to things a second faster or better than me.”
As a fellow INFP, I can only say, “I hear you, sister.”
To get the advantage, she gets up a half-hour earlier than everyone else. It’s a small step towards learning some of the organization she needs to realize her purpose and dreams. In the end, in a moment of clear-headedness, Mary Robert speaks up to the Reverend Mother, acknowledging the difficulties that she and Deloris had, yet still insisting that they must go help their newest sister.
Heroes & Villains of MBTI 