MARILLA CUTHBERT, EIGHT

Family usually have some kind of relationship between their Enneagram numbers. Because Matthew is a Five, Marilla’s Enneagram will either be in the strength-weakness number relationship, or in a Head Type adjacent number.

A Five in strength moves to Eight, and an Eight in weakness moves to Five. These siblings have a great dynamic, a great partnership even, because Marilla is an Eight.

No matter how genteel Marilla plays it, you know she wants to take Rachel Lynde’s head off sometimes. Very Eight. Her firmness in disciplining Anne is Eight-ish. Pleas for mercy are not effective on an Eight, and they don’t move Marilla. She’s a hard nut to crack, and when I read the novel as a child her character was very unsympathetic to me. Only later did I appreciate her no-nonsense pragmatism.

Marilla enters very reluctantly into a relationship with Anne, but once she’s in she will defend Anne to the death.

MATTHEW CUTHBERT, FIVE

Matthew is a drop-dead classic Man Five.

His gentleness, his shyness, his observational attention to Anne, and his abhorrence of socializing, are all Five traits. He is steady, quiet, and loyal. Five.

He’s also awkward, boring, and invisible. Five.

In one version of Anne of Green Gables Richard Farnsworth plays Matthew’s Five-ness perfectly. He is the exact lovable mix of qualities. However, the actor is built nothing like Men Fives, who are tall and sometimes gangly, lean, or rangy. Physically, a Man Five is quite similar to a Man Four. The personalities are diametrically opposed, of course, but on first glance they are hard to differentiate.

It just goes to show that an actor’s Enneagram number will not restrict their ability to convincingly play a character’s Enneagram number. I like that.

ANNE SHIRLEY, FOUR

Maybe I’m being too hasty, but doesn’t Anne of Green Gables seem like she must be an Enneagram Four?

She feels everything so very deeply. Drama, glory, beauty, vengeance — they’re all peak emotions for her. Gilbert teases her, and she’ll never forgive him. Diana is her friend, but they must be inseparable bosom buddies. If Marilla and Matthew don’t keep her, she’ll absolutely die. The color of her hair is a lifelong sorrow.

Also, she has the resigned Four way of dealing with pain. Her prior foster family is abusive and cruel. Anne knows this, yet when she talks about them she speaks matter-of-factly. While most of us cherish the highs and disdain the lows, Fours know life is a 50/50 prospect. Tragedy happens. Don’t make more of it than it deserves.

Anne is actually a great Four. Her envy-driven competitiveness at school leads her to outstanding accomplishments. Her stubborn attachment to feelings leads to Matthew’s loyalty and Marilla’s agreement to keep Anne, even though it goes against everything she’d planned. And Anne’s mishaps, which make for engaging storytelling, arise from weaknesses that can become her strengths.

Makes me want to re-read something I haven’t visited in decades.

OZ COMPANIONS, NULL

Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion aren’t really individuals with Enneagram numbers, they’re archetypes. Head Type, respectively, Heart, and Body.

If I were trying to describe the general idea of the personality Enneagram to children, what better reference to use than the Oz books?

Scarecrow is torn apart by the flying monkeys. His body is destroyed. A Head Type will value reason and ideas over physical capability. He’s not heartless — he loves Dorothy — but the heart for a Head Type is more a biological part rather than an emotional center.

TIn Man is strong and probably the best fighter (until Lion finds his peace), yet he hardly credits it. Emotion, love, feelings are what matters most to a Heart Type. When he can’t feel, because his heart is missing, he is incomplete and in turmoil.

Cowardly Lion is hyper-emotional. Fear drives him. He’s unbelievably strong, yet feelings keep him from remembering that. It’s only when no other companion has the capability — in the book Lion must jump them across a ravine, iirc — that he taps into his power. A Body Type is disoriented if they can’t (or don’t) use their physicality.

Each one believes he can’t do the one thing he’s good at.

The joke is that Scarecrow, who says he’s brainless, is actually smart. Tin Man is emotional and Lion is physical, despite their objections. It’s not as clear in the movie as it is in the book, but each does something that refutes their claim to failure. And the Wizard, knowing that each possesses his desired trait already, gives them some bogus gift that acts as a placebo.

It’s a good little lesson about having faith and trust in yourself.

DOROTHY GALE, THREE

I’m thinking specifically of the Judy Garland version. In the books Dorothy is too young for me to discern an Enneagram number for her. Judy was also technically a child, but I think she’s old enough for us to make some decisions about her.

My own book opened with a storytelling Enneagram breakdown of The Wizard of Oz. I remember being particularly struck by Toto’s trespassing as an action that started everything. And Toto, the dog, is going to do whatever Dorothy, the master, allows. Why would Dorothy allow Toto to go into Miss Gulch’s flowers?

Not a rule follower. Not particularly impressed with authority. Or, simply careless. Distracted.

Which means Dorothy is not a Six. Not a One.

Even though Oz is an unknown place, Dorothy confronts it bravely and immediately opens herself to the kind people who live there. Not a Five.

Possibly a Seven. Possibly an Eight. Heart Type possible.

When told to retrieve the Witch’s broom, she sets off. Not a Nine. (Professor Marvel is the Nine!)

A lot of choices left. Is there something from the movie that can pinpoint Dorothy’s number? When Dorothy is denied entrance to see the Wizard, she cries. An Eight would’ve confronted the door; a Seven would’ve devised a way around. So, Heart Type.

Let’s go back to the beginning. Toto. When Miss Gulch demands restitution for Toto’s trespassing, Dorothy takes no blame. Instead, she cries, “You wicked old witch!”

Ah. Three. Beloved by everybody, able to solve problems and save the day, refuses to admit when they’re wrong.

T2’S JOHN CONNOR, SIX

A child, even a teenaged one, can be difficult to pinpoint on the Enneagram scale, partly because they are physically undeveloped. What does this character tell us?

He’s a rebel. He doesn’t function well in foster care.

Regardless of that, he cares deeply about people in his life, including the foster parents. He wants no harm to come to them.

He wants no harm to come to anyone. He stops the Terminator from killing random strangers. John’s ethic of life is very strong, even though he can’t fully explain why.

He rescues his mom, even though logic says this is a dangerous choice.

This deeply ingrained sense of right and wrong, and the determination to follow it no matter what, says Six. If you think of John Connor, leader of humanity’s survival, in the future, Six-ness suits him. The level of belief, conviction, and authority a Six carries are what people will need when life hangs by a thread.

Also, the Six paranoia is probably what will lead him to keep dogs as cyborg sniffers.