Character Enneagrams – Page 5 – Enneagram and Encaustic

HENRY CAVILL’S SHERLOCK HOLMES, NINE

Now, I love Cavill. He’s a real-life gamer! But, lol, does he always play his characters as Nines? Geralt the Witcher, Superman, and now Sherlock. All of these heroes have a cool distance from the problems surrounding them.

In the first Enola Holmes movie, Sherlock makes only a few brief appearances. Obviously, he detects. He also involves himself in his sister’s life reluctantly. It’s not his business; Enola is Mycroft’s ward. When he does poke in, though, he meets a mind that thinks like his own.

In the second movie we see more of him. He’s inebriated in one scene, which is what we expect of Sherlock. We’re not shown why, or told of his drug/drink choice. Instead, it’s presented as normal: the dude had a night out. It’s not the debauchery we associate with him. It’s almost like a box is checked.

Same for a brief moment when he lifts a violin.

Look, it’s not his story. It’s okay that Sherlock is only an outline of a known character. Everything we see, though, is not a Holmes who is a Seven. (That honor goes to Enola.) I mean, it’s a good choice. We don’t want carbon copies in the same show. And, it’s Henry Cavill busting the arm seams of a double-breasted frock coat! He can steal the scene right out from under everyone if they don’t keep him in the background. The judicial detachment of a Nine is a wise Enneagram decision for this Holmes. We believe he’s competent, famous, and not the protagonist.

ENOLA HOLMES, SEVEN

Here’s the question: In Enola’s first movie, how much of her character can I attribute to her own Enneagram? Her mother’s training dominates her young life. She even says something about her purpose — what she was made for — is to fight. Does Enola relish fighting, or does she pursue fighting because her mother relishes it?

Like her brother, Sherlock, she has a mind that solves puzzles. Her mother exposed her to word games, but she is also naturally good at it. This is a trait that genuinely belongs to her.

She is not, however, natural at physical pursuits. She’s willing to try anything, but she wobbles on the bicycle and can’t initially master the jiujitsu takedown maneuver. The tennis she and her mother play is more about luck than skill. Although she’s very active, Enola doesn’t seem a Body Type.

In the second movie she leans into her detective skills. She’s brave, unintimidated, and socially comfortable in awkward situations. Her mother makes a brief appearance (as a small-scale terrorist, actually), but doesn’t drive Enola’s behavior like she did in the first movie.

I’m tempted to say she’s a Seven. It’s very Holmesian to love the world of the mind, yet engage in so much of the physical and dangerous. Also, the showrunners and Cavill have made their Sherlock a not-Seven, which gives Enola breathing room.

At this point, Enola’s rebellions are her mother’s. I hope the series continues and we see Enola embrace her own countercultural instincts. As a Seven she should become more efficient, more focused, and more comfortable with her own beauty. Right now she manipulates her image to be more boy-like. When she matures, that will become less believable. A whole world of disguises awaits her, and the use of prosthetics is very Holmesian. I look forward to it!

BATES, NULL

If we’re going to talk about criminals, which I did with Baxter, then we’d better get to Bates. Actually, he commits no crime, but he does go to prison.

He’s difficult for me because his and Anna’s story is very soap opera. Like Sybil and Tom, some parts of their characters only exist to further plot tension. Finding the Enneagram requires extra digging.

He limps, the result of a war wound. Anyone can have an injury, but I want to say he’s a Body Type simply because he seems defined by it. I feel sure that the writers invented this character trait for dramatic purposes, but it becomes more than that. He spends one season using some newfangled corrective leg brace that tortures him.

Eight? He can be impetuous and intemperate about his first wife, which leads him into trouble. Also, Anna refuses to confide in him about her rape because she fears he’ll kill the man.

However . . . in the later seasons the limp is only incidental. We forget about it and so do the storylines. Nothing else about Bates is particularly physical. Okay, look. He can’t be a Heart Type; he has no Envy. He’s no Head Type; the life of the mind never influences him. He’s obviously not a One. That only leaves Eight or Nine.

Wow, is Bates a Null? He’s a kind of Eight/Nine amalgam. Sometimes he’s volatile, sometimes he’s easygoing. Sometimes he’s reactive, and sometimes he’s measured. He takes on an awful lot of conflict for a Nine, yet he doesn’t have the vibrancy of an Eight. Holy cow. No wonder his character bugs me, even though I couldn’t put my finger on why. Interesting.

NELLIE LOVETT (1982), TWO

Will the real villain of Sweeney Todd please stand up, lol! He kills because he seeks revenge. What’s Mrs. Lovett’s excuse?

Angela Lansbury, with her expressive, heavily-lined eyes and her childish honeybun hairdo, fools us beautifully. Her humor, her game attitude, and her love for Sweeney distract us from how easily she participates in murdering and baking her customers. She’s such a great character, portrayed with so much exuberance.

So, what number can engage us so thoroughly that we look away from her moral chaos? I immediately go to Heart Type. Her gentleness with Toby, even though she expects Sweeney to kill him, comes naturally. She can’t help herself. Also, she obviously envies Sweeney’s wife and the love he still holds for her.

She’s no Three. The other pie shop woman who’s “popping pussies into pies” is more successful than her, lol. Two or Four? She’s even-keeled. She’s happy before she meets Sweeney, and happy afterward. Two, at least how Lansbury plays her. Depression doesn’t ever settle on her. This does make me curious, however, to see how other actors have portrayed Mrs. Lovett. Perhaps for next Halloween.

SWEENEY TODD (1982), SIX

He’s bloodthirsty and ruthless, but his desire for vengeance dominates any other characteristic. Judge Turpin and The Beadle must pay for the scheme they perpetrated: stealing his wife and falsely sending him off to prison. All the other deaths are incidental, people who cross his path while he waits for his two foes to come for a shave. He’s singularly focused, to the point where he can take human life without blinking, but once his mission is complete, he’s done. He’s not a good man, but his need for justice helps us tolerate his story.

He’s an excellent barber, lol. Does that say anything about his Enneagram? We see his meticulous preparation, sharpening the razor and smoothing the lather, and then — whisk! — the close shave is done. It’s very similar to his killing spree. This is someone who likes order.

A Six? (He’s too morose to be a One.) I could consider him a Two. A gentle soul when mistreated so badly could turn to darkness. However, he takes no pleasure in his razors as objects. “At last, my arm is complete again.” They’re not a Two’s collection; the shaving tools are part of his body, part of his identity.

The ability to justify evil actions is Six-ish. Once black has been determined to be white by a Six, they can move forward with a clear conscience. When his enemies are dead, Sweeney could, in theory, revert to a normal life. The story, however, delivers its own justice. Sweeney’s moral decisions lead him to kill someone precious to him, and, after one last act of vengeance, he ends up broken by it. It falls outside of his black-and-white universe, and he can’t resolve what he’s done. When he’s killed at the end of the play, everybody’s code is satisfied, even Sweeney’s.

ANNA, ONE

She’s so efficient that we never get a plotline about her job at Downton. All of Anna’s troubles are personal. I’m immediately thinking about a One. She feels like a small, cheerful dynamo. And she has that moral comfort a One or a Six possesses. She’s not a worrier, though (beyond regular human emotion) as a Six would be. It doesn’t define her.

So, a One.

Nobody in this era is going to jog about the park, but Anna is often shown walking to town. A Body Type would have few other outlets for exercise. She’s physically vibrant and brisk. Also, lol, I think she manages the finances for her marriage (a One trait). Everyone upstairs and downstairs is at ease around her. She has no Envy in her, so she can’t be a Three. Like a Three, though, a One is universally liked and successful. It makes her a useful character to the writers for a terrible rape plotline. No one wants to see Anna harmed, and her physical exuberance is convenient as a pivot point to put her in danger. That’s the dramatic nature of a soap opera, and I can’t complain that the showrunners have integrated Anna’s Enneagram into the story. I just don’t want to watch it.

GRAMMA TALA, NULL

She’s a troublemaker, lol. A rebel. She opens the movie by terrorizing the toddlers with the story of Maui. When Moana is grown, Gramma basically gaslights her by pretending she doesn’t care what Moana does. “I’m the village crazy lady,” she says. “That’s my job.” She’s a fairy godmother with a manta ray tattooed on her back.

Her only individual, character-specific moment is when she stands on the shore and admires her spirit animal. Otherwise, she’s the quest-giver, the heroic mentor, and the beloved elder. She’s a trickster. (Did they miss one of the archetypes, lol?) The showrunners pack a lot onto her shoulders. Can an Enneagram rise above all this weight?

Wow, no. In a previous review I held Gramma up as a great, well-written cameo character. I think I may have been bamboozled. Sorry about that. She’s layered with so many archetypes that she dazzles. However . . . she’s just a Null. Bummer.

Baxter, Nine

Since Baxter came up during the Molesley examination, let’s discuss her. She’s the one who eventually becomes Cora’s lady’s maid after O’Brien leaves. Thomas recommends her for the job; in exchange he holds her hostage. He wants to know the gossip upstairs and he’ll reveal her secret if she won’t dish.

And what is her secret? In a previous household she was convinced by an unscrupulous man to steal her employer’s jewelry. She served time and he went away free.

So, Baxter is malleable. She’s no Eight, One, or Three. She’s genuinely kind to others, even Thomas. This is a character with no Envy, so not a Two or Four. Because of her romantic feelings with Molesley, let’s rule out a Six (his Enneagram).

Five, Seven, or Nine? I want to say Nine. First of all, I like it as a companion number to Molesley. Also, I think the conflict inherent in Baxter’s crime is what torments her the most. Of course she’s embarrassed to confess to Cora, but upsetting the household balance, of putting Cora in the difficult position of deciding her fate, is more offensive to her. Molesley’s support — I would say his moral clarity, which is a source of peace for him — lends Baxter strength. Her past is not a drama for him, which makes it less of a drama for her.

MAUI, TWO

He’s immediately hilarious and wonderful, nailing the best song in the show. At first all we see is his confidence and his callousness. (He leaves Moana locked in a cave FOR LIFE, or at least as far as he knows.) If this weren’t a Disney movie (and Moana weren’t highly athletic) it would be a much different tone.

Instead, it’s basically a road movie with these two.

Because Maui’s a shapeshifter, I want to say he’s a Body Type. He’s impulsive and socially clueless at times, which leads me to Eight. I mean, he is a superhero, of a sort. Eight is pretty go-to.

But what if he isn’t? He’s powerful because of his fish hook. Without it, he’s just a marooned dude. Oh, hahaha! Are his tattoos a Two’s collection? Underneath his jerk impulses he’s a lonely guy who wants to be appreciated. He did everything, all of his heroic feats, to help humans (or, so he claims in “You’re Welcome”). If we are to believe him, he didn’t defeat the monsters because of the physical challenge, to pit himself against the toughest bosses. He did it out of a sense of service. At the climax, when his hook is half-broken and he wants to quit, he returns because Moana won’t stop. Aw, how sad that someone who seeks human connection and love has been isolated for so long. (No wonder he talks to his ink, lol.)

MOANA, NINE

One part of Moana genuinely believes she will perform her duty, stay on the island, and lead her people as her father has done. The other part of her is desperate for adventure on the sea. Also, as a good chief she knows that the village is unsustainable. Rot ruins their plants and the lagoon has been fished out. When she finds the boats in the sea cave, she sees a solution and an escape rolled into one.

It’s in the nature of the genre that our heroine will be athletic, but I think we’re looking at something extra. Moana sails with no previous experience, shows physical daring and confidence, and is an excellent acrobat, which all suggest a Body Type. (Otherwise I would peg her as a Three. She has that indomitable will and lucky touch.)

She’s a Nine. It’s her misplaced dutifulness. A Nine will slide to Six in weakness. She meets her obligation to the village without passion. Only after she pursues her own way, sailing to return the heart and adventuring to find Maui, can she succeed. Even then, she needs to express herself physically: sailing among her people. I like it! She’s an enjoyable character who feels fresh, yet she hits all the appropriate beats and stays true to her Enneagram. Well done.