The MBTI, or Meyer-Briggs Type Indicator, is a personality type system that categorizes the way that many people process information. The sixteen types, or categories, are formed from four sets of letters, E/I, N/S, F/T, and P/J. Because the MBTI is pretty mainstream, information about the types and test can be found readily online.
While reading the beginning of Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, I noticed several similarities between Clarissa Dalloway’s stream of thought and my own, and decided that Clarissa Dalloway has the Ni function of introverted intuition. (More information about this function, which is a part of a personality type, can be found here.)
In the following quote, note how Woolf writes about time in Clarissa’s stream of consciousness:
She remembered once throwing a shilling into the Serpentine. But every one remembered; what she loved was this, here, now, in front of her; the fat lady in the cab. Did it matter then, she asked herself, walking towards Bond Street, did it matter that she must inevitably cease completely…? (Woolf 9)
The thought in this passage glides from the past, to the present, to the future, with clear distinctions between the times, such as “But every one…” and “Did it matter…?” (9). Clarissa strives to focus on the present, but inevitably fails. She drifts quickly toward the future, thinking of her own death, and, throughout my reading of the first part of Mrs. Dalloway, her imminent party. The strength of her Ni function (introverted intuition) generates ideas and futures that seem removed from the present.
Through Clarissa’s thoughts about herself, Woolf presents other indications that Clarissa relies heavily upon a personal strength of intuition. I have included several quotes below that stood out to me, and that I may decide to form into arguments at a later date.
“Her only gift was knowing people almost by instinct” (Woolf 9).
“For the surface agitation of the passing car as it sunk grazed something very profound” (18).
“Clarissa guessed; Clarissa knew of course; she had seen something white, magical, circular in the footman’s hand, a disc inscribed with a name,–the Queen’s, the Prince of Wales’s, the Prime Minister’s?” (17).
(Editorial note: Of course, because Clarissa Dalloway is a fictional character, portions of the text can be drawn up and argued to persuade her toward one function or type or another.)
Sources: Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Harcourt, Inc., 2000.
Photo by Thomas Kelley on Unsplash
