Peter Simmonds MBTI Personality Type
Personality
What personality type is Peter Simmonds? Peter Simmonds is an INFJ personality type in MBTI, 4w3 - so/sx - 497 in Enneagram, RLOAI in Big 5, EII in Socionics.
In my opinion, Peter's arc is textbook dissonance between Ni and Fe. He knows he is gay, he's known for years, but he's acutely aware that coming out will hurt the people he loves. It takes the entire show for Peter to learn that he doesn't have to prioritize the feelings of his loved ones (Jason, his mother, his friends) over his own happiness. For example, this is how he describes the feeling of finally choosing to live his truth - regardless of what others think - at the end of the show: "I've never been so scared; doubts that will never go away; each of us standing bare; knowing who we have to be; I hope and pray that you'll understand." For INFJs, the hardest decision is often to be honest when one's personal truth will be misunderstood and even taken as an offense by others. INFJs misinterpret the shortcomings of others as our own responsibility to manage. This is who Peter demonstrates himself to be throughout, with pretty much every character he talks to in every scene he has. He even says that he's been waiting to tell his mother he is gay since he was 12. The only reason he decides it's finally time is because he has a vision of the Virgin Mary, and feels an ethical responsibility to the Virgin Mary, God, and his mother. This feeling of responsibility is what ultimately outweighs the years he has spent in fear of hurting others with his own truth. That's Ni and Fe to me; the impetus is a drunken religious vision and the dealbreaker comes down to the feelings of others. Regardless of personality type, this is a universal experience for queer people, especially in these kinds of environments. But in my opinion, that's what he primarily represents as a character so if we're going to talk MBTI, that's my vote. Another strong case for his status as an INFJ is his premonitory dream, which foreshadows Jason's eventual funeral, right at the start of the show. This signals Ni. In fact, I would argue that the whole opening number could be looked at as a sound theatrical depiction of the INFJ's inner-world. And as soon as "You and I" is over, and Jason leaves Peter alone, he is overcome with the intuitive notion that something bad is going to happen to Jason - even though their entire interaction has been flirtatious and loving from start to finish. This is why the transition from "You and I" to "Role of a Lifetime" works so well. Peter doesn't have any immediate, literal data to go off of - yet his Ni and Fe confirm that Jason is not okay, so much so that the next words out of his mouth are a dramatic tone shift into a completely new song. And I find "Role of a Lifetime" extremely distinct from many other protagonist "I Want" songs in the musical theatre, in that his emotional focus in the majority of the song is Jason's feelings rather than his own - or at least, he is processing the situation by focusing on how everything is hurting Jason rather than how it is hurting himself - which is also classic INFJ behavior. And when he finally does make it about "we," I've always felt those lyrics are meant to comment on the suffering of all queer people in such predicaments. The "we" feels like an "editorial" we, to quote Angels in America. Also one tiny sort of silly thing... inferior Se = getting high on "pot brownies" and having no clue it happened. 😳
Biography
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