Functional Order: Ni/Fe/Ti/Se
Dominant Function: Ni
Sayuri admits to the man she loves at the end of the film, “Every step I have taken has been to bring me closer to you.” She shows a conscious, intuitive process even in childhood, in a specific direction, when she meets the Chariman, falls in love with him because of his kindness in buying her a cherry ice treat, and then “realizes that being a geisha is a stepping stone for something else, a place in his world.” She saw how if she became a geisha, she could be with him, be equal to him, and attract him, and devoted her entire life, being, and focus to that task, from that day forward. Many of her internal musings are full of metaphors – stories about water and how it flows, how she tried to run away like a tiger from its cage, and how sumo wrestlers are a “dance between giants…. I understand why you like them; you cannot judge a man’s power by his appearance alone.” The latter is an incredible insight into the general, whose face is half scarred from battle, that wins her over to him.
Auxiliary Function: Fe
Sayuri is openly emotional and reactive, running away in an attempt to find her sister, and even unwisely goading another geisha in public in an attempt to belittle her and even the score (which causes this woman to abuse her later in the day). Though distracted by her goal of attracting the Chairman, Sayuri manages to charm and win over the general and make other men like her, even flattering them for others’ sake when necessary. She doesn’t like to be treated as a piece of property, but becomes a geisha once more after the war in the hopes of helping the Chairman restart his business ventures by attracting American investors. When she discovers the general desires her, but could not stand it if she was impure, she tries to make it known that she isn’t pure, to thwart him without directly admitting to him that she doesn’t want his advances and doesn’t love him.
Tertiary Function: Ti
She is a careful thinker most of the time, and when betrayed by Pumpkin, in tears demands to know her reason why, as if understanding it will help her forgive, or at least comprehend how her plans are all ruined.
Inferior Function: Se
Sayuri struggles to adopt her inferior Se. She is clumsy at first as a geisha, does not realize a tea pot has no tea in it just by holding it (thus causing herself some embarrassment when she tries to pour out of it), and often falls off her high shoes. Whenever she does anything impulsively, it backfires – an attempt to escape the house over the rooftops hurts her badly and winds up costing the house money for a doctor. An impulsive decision to sleep with an American, in order to make the general discover them and fall out of love with her, almost ruins her overall plan to attract the Chairman.
Note: This argument has been taken from Funky Mbti in Fiction
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