The Fitzgeralds

[Thalassa]

I've seen people type F. Scott Fitzgerald as an ESTP and I couldn't disagree more. I'm fairly certain he's an ISTP, with ISFP as my second choice. Zelda was actually the more "outgoing" of the two and tended to draw attention to herself. While Scott was known for having an offensive, suggestive sense of humor while drunk, when he was sober he came across as fairly quiet and reserved. I also don't think he came across the with the intense "macho" persona of an ESTP man, either. While Scott was attractive to women, and clearly confident in himself, I've read that there was actually something "elegant" about his physical appearance, the way he dressed, the way he carried himself, that makes me think that he didn't come across as an intimidating "manly man" like an ESTP..actually, I think that might be more like his friend Hemingway, who Zelda hated.

As for Zelda, I think she's an ENFP or ESFP. I don't have a long defense of this, it's just what I've decided on what I've studied about her, and I've never seen anyone else type her before.

Edit: I will explain, though, why I'm torn between ENFP and ESFP for Zelda. She was a skilled painter, dancer, and when she wrote she excelled at sensory imagery, she could really "take you there" with her words, which seem like S traits to me; yet she also had a very distant, dreamy sort of mind set, often didn't pay attention to the people around her although she frequently wanted to be the center of attention, played with words not only in writing but also in speech and in bonding with her daughter Scottie as a small child, and felt a yearning to be more than she was: she wasn't content just to be a mother and the wife of Scott Fitzgerald, which seem more like N traits to me. Of course her schizophrenia makes it a little difficult but I'm going on her behavior in her teens and twenties. Everything else about her seems extremely EFP.

 

[dynamiteninja]

Your Zelda appreciation seems about right to me.

There have been rumblings of discontentment over Fitzgerald being typed as an ESTP for some time now. ISxP does seem more likely. If Fitzgerald is the narrator Nick in Great Gatsby, I'd say that Nick is an ISTP.

Have a look at Ian Fleming's library (an ISTP) http://www.librarything.com/profile/Ian_Fleming

and compare it to Fitzgerald's http://www.librarything.com/profile/FScottFitzgerald

it does make Fitzgerald seem more of an ISFP type.

 

[Thalassa]

The more I learn and deliberate, I'm going to go with ESFP for Zelda. She very much had SP bravado.