Extroverted (energized by social interaction and the outer world)
Sensing (concrete and realistic)
Feeling (bases decisions on values)
Perceiving (adaptable and spontaneous)
Dominant Function: Extroverted Sensing (Se)
The dominant function is one’s “default setting,” the function one feels most comfortable using. Se is concerned with taking in sensory information, “here and now” mentality, taking immediate action, interacting with one’s immediate environment, living in the moment, thrill-seeking.
Marjory has an apparent need for excitement and action. She’s as interested in cricket as her brothers are and seems to live vicariously through Mike in order to get the excitement that she as an Edwardian girl is denied. She’s an enthusiastic talker who not only thrives on the drama around her but feels compelled to share current events whether it’s tactful or not. Her letter are typically “breezy” with a unique, entertaining style that makes no pretensions toward drama but straightforwardly relays whatever is uppermost in her mind (though she does also complain about how exhausting the letter has been to write). According to Mike, she has had a “career of crime.” She nearly drowned him with a sponge once while he was sleeping and fights regularly with Phyllis for the jam at breakfast (usually managing to win). She lives for thrilling information like hearing about Wyatt’s being in a duel and is so impatient for the letter-reading experience that she proposes to wake Mike so they can Do It Now. And she’s just a little too excited on hearing that Wyatt shot someone (“Killed him?”).
Auxiliary Function: Introverted Feeling (Fi)
The auxiliary function assists and balances the dominant function and is used when one helps or mentors someone. Fi is concerned with focusing on personal/individual values, experiencing intense emotions which are not directly expressed and may be concealed, expressing feelings indirectly, understanding and defining personal feelings/values and likes and dislikes, determining what is worthy of being valued and stood up for, balancing peace and conflict, striving for consistency of values.
Marjory is not especially emotionally demonstrative, but she takes her personal preferences and close relationships very seriously. Since she “adopted [Mike] at an early age,” she considers him her special ally and looks on their fortunes as linked, almost as if Mike is an extension of herself. She takes Bob’s snark at her optimistic prospects for Mike personally, lashing out at him in insulted rage. Making no secret of the fact that Mike is her favorite brother, she fetches and carries and does special favors for him alone and is even reduced to emotional meltdowns when having to see him off at the station whenever he returns to school. Furthermore, she can’t understand why everyone doesn’t see Mike as she sees him; she declares that Wrykyn ought to be glad to have Mike just for cricketing purposes and not care about his marks. A girl of independence, she stands by her own views even when her family objects. On the whole, she means very well, but tact isn’t her strong point.
Tertiary Function: Extroverted Thinking (Te)
The tertiary function is the area where one seeks guidance and accepts help, where one is either childish or childlike and vulnerable. It can also be a source of relief, a means of unwinding, or how one expresses creativity. Te is concerned with making sure procedures are efficient, less concerned with precision than clarity, finding practical/pragmatic solutions, aiming for achievement and success, using external data to prove a point, planning and organizing to achieve a definite goal, using orderly logic in clear steps.
Marjory can be quite critical, especially of her brothers’ cricketing. She has been fined pudding on three separate occasions for her caustic comments about Reggie’s batting, but she’s determined that it won’t be her fault if the family cricket standard isn’t kept up. She prefers to do things the expedient way—so what if she nearly choked Mike when she wrung out that sponge into his mouth, if it was completely necessary to wake him? (“I had to. He was snoring like anything.”) She seems to consider herself the voice of sense: she has an I-told-you-so attitude toward her sisters and detaches herself from their squabbles once she’s old enough to put her hair up, and she authoritatively offers her elder brother Bob unsolicited advice (borrowed from a book) on how to get Mike onto the Wrykyn team.
Inferior Function: Introverted iNtuition (Ni)
The inferior function is the area one is at one’s weakest in and least comfortable using, something one might aspire to but not be able to use well. It can emerge in times of great stress as a negative version of itself. Ni is concerned with connecting seemingly unrelated ideas, system-building, strategizing toward one definite outcome, reading between the lines, using insight, expressing through symbols/analogies, long-term planning, expecting outcomes not based on external data, having a vision for the future and a plan to get there.
We see so little of Marjory that her inferior Ni is only barely visible—besides, she’s still rather young and it may not be as developed. But she has an absolute certainty of Mike’s immediate success once he goes to Wrykyn, even when Bob and Saunders both insist that such a thing will take time—and it turns out that she was right.
Note: Mike is ISFP, meaning that he and Marjory share all the same functions in a different but fairly similar order. No wonder they’re close.
