"The Magic Flute" Personality Types (MBTI)

Ever since I discovered Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, it’s been an invaluable tool for understanding

myself and for understanding others around me. It’s also been a fantastic tool for analyzing fictional

characters. While I understand that no scholarly character analysis would use this personality-typing

system, especially for a work of fiction created centuries earlier, examining a character’s MBTI type 

can provide insights into that character you might never have otherwise considered.

Below are my personal MBTI typings for the six lead characters in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, along with analyses of why I think each character embodies their specific personality type.

Tamino: ENFJ (Extraversion, Intuition, Feeling, Judging)

Extraverted Feeling (Fe): Tamino always follows his heart, with decisive, emotion-driven actions in
response to cues from others. He sees a portrait of a beautiful girl? Instantly he loves her and is eager to act on that love. He learns that his beloved has been kidnapped and her mother gives him a pathetic account of it? Instantly he’s overcome with pity and righteous anger and he sets out straight away to rescue her. The kidnapper turns out to be a wise, virtuous high priest? He’ll serve him now, obey his orders and embrace his values as his own, shifting from the mindset of old-school chivalry and “noble” violence to the Masonic/Enlightenment-era views that the priests espouse. Even when he represses his emotions during the trials in Act II, he does it in an Extraverted Feeling way, not in a Thinking way. It doesn’t serve a practical purpose to hide his love from a heartbroken Pamina or to walk headlong into a blazing fire and face almost certain death. But he’s willing to do them anyway because they’re the “manly” and “virtuous” choices, as defined by his chosen group, Sarastro’s brotherhood. Like a typical Extraverted Feeler, he serves the larger group whatever the personal cost and strives for harmony on a large scale.

Introverted Intuition (Ni): Throughout the opera, Tamino thinks more in abstract concepts than in literal facts, and those concepts reflect a staunch, streamlined view of what the world should be like and how people should behave. “Virtue,” “love,” “truth,” “wisdom,” “manliness,” “justice”… these are the things he speaks of, strives to embody and expects from others too. As outlined above, these abstract values matter more to him than any pragmatic concerns or situation-specific details. This fact highlights both his Feeling nature and his Intuitive nature.

Extraverted Sensing (Se): Although it’s less of a defining trait in him than in Papageno, Tamino is adept at living in the present moment. He accepts each new life-changing revelation as it comes and each new responsibility imposed on him. Unlike Si-user Pamina, he never yearns for what’s been lost. (Granted, the Queen isn’t his mother). Like a stereotypical man, he loves visually, falling in love with the beauty of Pamina’s portrait: again, unlike Pamina, whose dreams of love make her fall for the idea of him. It’s both classic fairy-tale and classic Se.

Introverted Thinking (Ti): In the Act I scene with the Speaker and in the Act II “Wie? Wie? Wie?” quintet, we see Tamino in the grip of inferior Ti. In both scenes he’s harsh and critical, insists that the beliefs of his group are the objective truth, and swallows all emotions except anger and disdain in favor of what he thinks is logic. Yet we see him use his Ti for good too, as he embraces Enlightenment reason, learns to think before he acts and searches for genuine truth. Both his much-lauded virtues and his arguable flaws have Ti as a part of them.

Other Fictional ENFJs: Giorgio Germont (La Traviata), Faramir (Lord of the Rings), Charles Bingley (Pride and Prejudice), Margaret "Marmee" March (Little Women), Wendy Darling (Peter Pan)
Real-World ENFJs: Martin Luther King Jr., Barack Obama, Mother Teresa, David Bowie, Kenneth Branagh

Pamina: INFP (Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, Perceiving)

Introverted Feeling (Fi): Pamina lives by deep feeling and unchanging values that come from within. Independent of anyone else, she refuses ever to lie or to harm anyone and she glorifies friendship and especially love. Unlike with Tamino, her ultimate shift in loyalty from her mother to Sarastro isn’t a change in values: instead it’s the only way she finds she can stay true to her values. Nor does she even need to see Tamino to fall in love with him. Just hearing about him and knowing he loves her appeals to her innermost dreams of romance and earns her devotion. Last but not least, she values personal relationships above all else. Despite knowing the virtue of Sarastro’s brotherhood, she can’t choose them over her beloved mother until the Queen violates her personal morals and betrays their personal bond. From then on, Tamino becomes her life, and she can’t comprehend how he can push their love aside in favor of serving other ideals. If he does, she wrongly assumes, he must not really love her.  Yet her prioritizing of their love saves Tamino’s life when she goes against the established rules by joining him in the trials. Thus we see the merit both of his Fe approach to life and of her Fi.

Extraverted Intuition (Ne): Like Tamino, Pamina favors abstract concepts more than literal facts. But she seems more open to possibilities. Her shift from the Queen’s side to Sarastro’s is slower than Tamino’s, as she envisions a future where she can go back to her mother yet still love Tamino and respect Sarastro. Later, even when she’s firmly allied with Sarastro, she chafes against the rules that send Tamino to risk his life without her and ultimately defies them to everyone’s benefit. To the end, she sees beyond the narrower visions of others around her.

Introverted Sensing (Si): At the beginning, Pamina’s greatest wish is to go back to her old life with her mother. “A child’s duty” initially blinds her to the Queen’s flaws and to the positive potential of a life in Sarastro’s realm. Nor can she imagine a life without her long-held vision of love: she would rather die. Yet this makes her beautifully loyal, and her roots in the past serve her well too, when she remembers the magic flute’s creation and its protective power. Her Ne and Si together let her bring the best of her mother’s old world into a bright new future.

Extraverted Thinking (Te): When she needs to, Pamina has no trouble taking decisive practical action, whether it be escaping from Monostatos, facing Sarastro with the truth after running away, or joining Tamino in the final trials and instructing him to play the magic flute. But she tends to misuse or underuse her Te too. In the beginning her love (Fi) and duty (Si) toward her mother keep her from accurately and objectively seeing both the Queen and Sarastro for who they are. Later she jumps to the conclusion that Tamino doesn’t love her and clings to that conclusion despite all evidence against it, culminating in her rash suicide attempt. Throughout the opera, like Tamino’s Ti, her Te manifests in both good and bad ways.

Other Fictional INFPs: Romeo Montague (Romeo and Juliet), Violetta Valéry and Alfredo Germont (La Traviata), Marius Pontmercy (Les Misérables)

Real-World INFPs: Helen Keller, Princess Diana, Daniel Radcliffe, Elijah Wood

Papageno: ESFP (Extraversion, Sensing Feeling, Perceiving)

Extraverted Sensing (Se): Papageno lives almost completely in the moment and is chiefly concerned with literal things. Except for love, he couldn’t care less for the abstract ideals most of the other characters live for, but just wants to be safe, enjoy good food and wine, catch birds, listen to them sing, and find a pretty wife. Even when he fantasizes about love, his fantasies highlight the physical: i.e. kisses, cradling his wife in bed, and begetting children. Nor, apart from his dreams of love, does he ever think much of the future. Even after being warned that he’ll be punished if he fails the trial of silence, his boredom in the moment makes him babble away, and even his dream of love is briefly tossed aside when he’s told he needs to face danger to earn it (“I’ll stay single!”). As a man whose job consists of looking through nature for birds to catch, it makes sense that he should chiefly focus on the external, the literal, the physical and the present.

Introverted Feeling (Fi): It’s fitting that Papageno, not Tamino, should be the one who sings the “Mann und Weib” duet with Pamina, because like her, he places utmost value on personal love. It’s his greatest desire, he glorifies it and he always values it above duty to the larger group. For that matter, all his personal feelings matter more than any larger duty or any pragmatic concerns. Regardless of whether anyone approves or not, and regardless of any bad results, he always gives into his fear, his desire for pleasure, etc. From beginning to end, this quirky, emotional bird-man follows his own path and lives for love and joy.

Extraverted Thinking (Te): Though he doesn’t often use it, Papageno has a streak of down-to-earth pragmatism that he translates into quick, decisive actions. When afraid, he’s instinctively ready to tell lies to protect himself. When both he and Pamina are nearly captured by Monostatos, he saves the day by remembering to play his magic bells. Throughout the Act II trials, he stubbornly refuses to face each danger until either enticement or threat drives him onward. His smart, stubborn streak of Te is his key to self-preservation.

Introverted Intuition (Ni): When forced to consider the possible dangers ahead, Papageno catastrophizes. Sarastro will have him “plucked, roasted and fed to the dogs,” the temple trials will mean certain death, etc. Likewise, he assumes that without a wife, he’ll either die of grief or should kill himself. These melodramatics are typical bursts of underdeveloped Ni from a dominant Sensor. But we see him use his Intuition in a beautiful way too, as he envisions the bliss of romance, and as he espouses a worldview that glorifies love, friendship and harmony. A worldview that’s not really so different from Sarastro’s and his priests’.

Other Fictional ESFPs: Pippin Took (Lord of the Rings), Wilbur (Charlotte's Web), Donkey (Shrek), Dory (Finding Nemo), Big Bird (Sesame Street)
Real-World ESFPs: Oscar Wilde, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Leonardo DiCaprio, and possibly Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Queen of the Night: ESFJ (Extraversion, Sensing, Feeling, Judging)

Extraverted Feeling (Fe): Yes, the Queen shares her dominant function with Tamino. But of course it manifests differently. Instead of focusing on how to serve the people she cares about, she focuses on how to make others view her with fear and awe, how to manipulate them, and how to reward or punish them depending on whether or not they serve her. Yet as with Tamino, her every word and action revolves around emotional meaning. In her first aria, she appeals to Tamino’s Fe by stoking his sympathy for her suffering and Pamina’s, while in her second she manipulates Pamina’s Fi by evoking their personal bond and threatening to sever it. Nor do we ever learn what she wants to do with the Disc of the Sun’s power or what practical purpose Sarastro’s death will serve for her. Instead her focus is emphatically on revenge. Not just eliminating Sarastro, but making him “feel the pain of death.” Emotion-driven actions are everything to her.

Introverted Sensing (Si): The Queen can’t let go of the wrongs done to her in the past. Her husband’s choice of Sarastro over herself as heir to his power and Sarastro’s kidnapping of her daughter drive her every action. In her Act I aria, she describes Pamina's terror as she was stolen in vivid detail, and in her dialogue with Pamina in Act II (in the uncut libretto), she recites her husband’s entire deathbed speech from bitter memory. She’s also an effective symbol of an outdated world order (like the rule of the aristocracy and church in Mozart’s day), trying in vain to battle the new Enlightenment, regain the power she once shared with her husband, and uphold the old ways. While of course a healthy Si-user can let go of grudges and be open to change, the failure to do so is a classic trait of unhealthy Si.

Extraverted Intuition (Ne): The Queen is always looking to new possibilities to achieve her goal of revenge. First she looks to Tamino as her agent, then turns to Pamina, and finally tries to launch an attack herself with the Ladies’ and Monostatos’s help. Also, as much as she might symbolize “old ways” with her Si, she also looks toward a hitherto-unknown future where a woman can reign supreme, which tragically for her, Sarastro’s vision of “a woman’s sphere” can’t conceive. In this way, her Ne contrasts with the Ni of her nemesis.

Introverted Thinking (Ti): The Queen knows how to formulate plans, but because this is her lowest function, she doesn’t fully consider the practical details. While she rightly determines that Tamino will fall in love with Pamina’s portrait and that his love and compassion will drive him to try to rescue her, she doesn’t predict how easily the idealistic young prince will switch to Sarastro’s side. Nor does she predict that Pamina’s integrity won’t let her commit murder, not even for her mother’s sake; nor does she foresee the power that defeats her in the end. While she has the potential to be a “mastermind” villain, she falls short because her Thinking and Intuition are underdeveloped beneath her Sensing and Feeling.

Other Fictional ESFJs: Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly), Glinda (The Wizard of Oz and Wicked), Miss Piggy (the Muppets), Molly Weasley and Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter), Cersei Lannister (Game of Thrones)
Real-World ESFJs: Catherine the Great, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, King Charles III, Maya Angelou

Sarastro: INFJ (Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, Judging)

Introverted Intuition (Ni): Sarastro’s every word and action reflect his vision of what the world should be. He devotes his life to building a community of wisdom, reason, courage, selfless love and integrity: in short, all the values of the Age of Enlightenment and particularly the Masons whom his initiates represent. These values staunchly define his concept of “good” and the lack of them defines his concept of “evil.” More controversially by modern standards, he also preaches a very 18^th century vision of gender roles, with “man” elevated as a symbol of strength and intelligence, and “woman” as a weaker being who depends on male guidance. These visions of human nature and morality are abstract: it’s natural that the Queen should reject them, as she’s both a Sensor (focused on the concrete past) and an Ne user (who sees different possibilities for the future). But Sarastro lives for these visions and no outside force can sway him from them. His role as a leader and mentor is to sway other people toward them.

Extraverted Feeling (Fe): Surprising though it might seem to view the stoic Sarastro, whose teachings so emphatically promote self-control, as a Feeler instead of a Thinker, he is one. Values – not pragmatic action, but values – are his lifeblood. In the same vein as his protégée Tamino, he speaks constantly of “virtue,” “love,” “friendship,” “forgiveness” and “happiness”. These are the motives for everything he does. Nor is he content to be the only person who lives by those values. He’s built a community with them and makes it his mission to teach others to live by them too. Judging by the tests he imposes, he also seems to deeply value loyalty and obedience to the brotherhood over personal desires. Universal harmony and “love of fellow man” are his ultimate goals.

Introverted Thinking (Ti): Without this function, Sarastro could never have built his society of law, order and reason. His Ti is the source of the orderly structure of the temples, the brotherhood’s meetings and prayers, and of course the trials the young would-be initiates face. It’s the source of the value his society places on self-discipline and thought before action. It also inspires the ruthlessly pragmatic choices he sometimes makes for the greater good: e.g. kidnapping Pamina, or letting her suffer to test Tamino’s integrity, or the very fact that his trials are potentially fatal. While ultimately a Feeler, he can definitely behave like a Thinker.

Extraverted Sensing (Se): Because this is Sarastro’s lowest function, it’s no wonder that he tends to seem a bit detached from the world around him. In his all-consuming vision of an ideal future, he often ignores the very real hardships of the present: namely Pamina’s natural pain at being separated from her mother, Monostatos’s dangerous designs on her, and her suicidal anguish as a result of Tamino’s trials. Still, he’s not entirely detached. As much as he values forgiveness, he still severely punishes Monostatos when he realizes his crimes, and in the end he values Pamina’s courage and loyalty enough to depart from his Ni-based rules and initiate her. In these rare cases, he prioritizes the facts of the present.

Other Fictional INFJs: Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird), Helen Burns (Jane Eyre), Gandalf (Lord of the Rings), Mufasa (The Lion King)
Real-World INFJs: Mahatma Gandhi, Shirley Temple, Adolf Hitler, Karl Jung, J.K. Rowling, Maria Callas

Monostatos: ISTP (Introversion Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving)

Introverted Thinking (Ti): It might be surprising to see Monostatos labeled a Thinker, not a Feeler, since his main motive is his passion for Pamina. But just as Sarastro and Tamino approach their Enlightenment stoicism in a Feeling way (embracing it not for pragmatic use, but as a virtue), Monostatos approaches his passion in a Thinking way. He’s constantly scheming and trying new pragmatic actions to achieve his goal of winning Pamina: force, blackmail, kowtowing to Sarastro, or kowtowing to the Queen. He does all of this with no sentimentality and no idealism. In the uncut libretto, he even calls love a “damn foolish thing.” Where the opera’s heroic characters (all Feelers) revere love as the path to human divinity, for Monostatos it’s just an uncomfortable source of “burning” within him, which he wants to alleviate with any practical means he can. His ruthless, “whatever it takes” approach to life is a hallmark of unhealthy Thinkers.

Extraverted Sensing (Se): As with Papageno, Monostatos's focus is on the present and the literal world around him, not on abstractions or far-off possibilities. For all his rage about being despised for his skin color, he never tries to escape the life of a slave. Instead he takes advantage of the social pecking order, bullying the slaves under his command, abusing his power over Pamina as her guard, and obsequiously serving first Sarastro and then the Queen. Also like Papageno, he views love in physical terms: “billing and cooing, hugging, kissing.” This is partly because both characters represent “base instincts,” but also because they both use Se.

Introverted Intuition (Ni): Supporting Monostatos’s Se is his underlying conviction of how “the system” works. He “knows” that by utilizing the pecking order, bullying those beneath him, and groveling to those above him, he can get his way, and he clings to that vision even as those methods repeatedly and comically fail him. In his Act II aria, he also voices the sweeping view that all flesh-and-blood creatures are entitled to act on their instinct to love. A valid assertion, even though the way he acts on it is appalling.

Extraverted Feeling (Fe): Monostatos is painfully aware of his outsider status. He knows it’s “wrong” for him to pursue a white girl, and even begs the moon to forgive him for it. But he still desperately craves Pamina and fumes in his belief that she only rejects him because he’s black (or green, or blue, or whatever the production makes him). Underlying all his hard edges and pragmatic scheming is a wild longing for love (or at least for sex) and his failure to get it results in vicious anger, culminating when he snaps and tries to stab Pamina for spurning him. Like all Fe users, he wants to emotionally “belong,” but both his status and his actions ensure that he never will.

Other Fictional ISTPs: Sparafucile (Rigoletto), George Milton (Of Mice and Men), Wolverine (X-Men), Severus Snape (Harry Potter), Oscar the Grouch (Sesame Street)
Real-World ISTPs: Socrates, Theodore Roosevelt, Jules Verne, Scarlett Johansson, Taylor Swift