Fictional Characters With the INTP Personality Type
Fictional Characters With the INTP Personality Type
“The world to me was a secret which I desired to divine.” - Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus.
“You couldn't really imprison someone like Leonard of Quirm. The most you could do was lock up his body. The gods alone knew where his mind went.” - Terry Pratchett, Jingo
INTPs are common in fiction: they might be the precocious child, the absent-minded professor, the grizzled detective, the scientist, or the cool, sarcastic misfit. In just about every story featuring a Logician, they’re working hard to solve a mystery or they’re pushing the laws of nature to the limit as they try to create something new. Here are some examples of famous fictional Logicians:
Alice in Wonderland
This beloved children’s book heroine appears to be an INTP—which is fitting, since the author, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll, was a mathematician. Alice is frequently mistyped as an INFP (the “Mediator), but her strong emphasis on logic over emotion suggests she’s more likely to be a thinker than a feeler. Although Alice is a child, she’s very adaptable– she’s not really fazed by going down the rabbit hole into a different world. Like many young INTPs, Alice also has enough confidence to take the irrational and long-winded adult characters she meets to task, and she has an INTP’s typical curiosity.
Neo
This leather-jacket-clad action hero is driven by an intuitive sense that something is deeply wrong with his world, and he wants to work out what it is. In The Matrix, he chooses to confront reality and take the red pill, rather than hiding fantasy. He’s also introverted, very tech-savvy, and he thinks on the fly. He even has a stylish but slightly unusual wardrobe, which is typical for a Logician.
Professor Abraham van Helsing
No problem is too daunting or too strange for Dracula’s archnemesis. In Dracula, by Bram Stoker, van Helsing is a retired specialist in rare diseases who successfully turns his hand to vampire-hunting. He generally manages to keep a clear head and a scientific mindset in even the most terrifying of circumstances.
The character Dr. Seward sums Van Helsing up, saying: “He is a philosopher and a metaphysician, and one of the most advanced scientists of his day; and he has, I believe, an absolutely open mind”. Like the stereotypical INTP, he also has a wide range of interests and is very adaptable.
Sherlock Holmes
The world’s most famous fictional detective is considered to be an INTP. He’s incredibly intuitive and logical, has great general knowledge and he’s also an accomplished violin player. At times, he can also be a bit condescending to his loyal sidekick, Dr. Watson.
He doesn’t mean to be rude, it’s just that his brain works a bit faster than everyone else’s. Holmes’ nemesis, Moriarty, is generally assumed to be an ENTJ—he thinks through every single move. Sherlock Holmes is more likely a prospecting (P) character, as he is able to improvise and think on his feet.
Donnie Darko
This early ‘00s teen antihero exemplifies both the lighter and darker traits of the INTP. He doesn’t really care what anyone thinks and he can come across as strange and antisocial—he’s very much an outsider.
Donnie Darko is also intensely curious. He wants to understand the world he’s living in and to solve the puzzle of why he keeps seeing a giant rabbit (a nod to Alice in Wonderland). His heart is ultimately in the right place, though his ability to see through the fluff and expose hypocrisy in the adult world sometimes makes him seem threatening to other characters.
Lisbeth Salander
The heroine of TheGirl with the Dragon Tattoo is a brilliant, non-conformist coder. Lisbeth Salander is a lone wolf, and she’ll do anything to get to the bottom of what’s going on. Like many INTPs, Salander has an interesting and unconventional sense of style.
Despite her intimidating exterior, like most Logicians, she’s sincere and genuine. Some commentators categorize Salander as an INTJ, but others note that she prefers to keep her options open rather than sticking to one course of action. These traits make her more likely to be a prospecting (P) personality type than a judging one.
Ariadne
The young architect from the film Inception, Ariadne is a master puzzle-builder. She’s adaptable, curious, and calm, keeping a cool head under pressure.
Garfield
Everyone’s favorite grumpy cat! Garfield, the know-it-all who loves lasagne, hates Mondays, and is constantly playing tricks on the household dog, typifies a particular type of INTP: the cynical but loveable introvert. He doesn’t have the typical thirst for knowledge that can make the Logician particularly inspiring, but his skepticism and wit make him entertaining.
Victor Frankenstein
The doctor who creates life in Mary Shelley’s famous Romantic horror story, Victor Frankenstein, is haunted by his own creation. Frankenstein is introverted, brilliant, and eclectic. From childhood, he’s been interested in math, philosophy, the natural sciences, chemistry, and alchemy.
But he’s also very disorganized, which is a typical prospecting (P) trait. Frankenstein pushes science to the limits in his search for knowledge, but he doesn’t really think about what will happen if his experiment goes wrong. Frankenstein is sometimes portrayed simply as a “mad scientist,” but he’s a much more complex and tragic character who is eventually consumed with remorse.
Leonard of Quirm
Leonard of Quirm is the good-natured renaissance man and inventor, loosely based on Leonardo da Vinci, who appears in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books. Leonard is so adept at creating dangerous weapons, and so naive about their implications, that the rulers of the city he lives in lock him in an attic for his own safety.
Leonard doesn’t mind this at all: it’s comfortable, and he has plenty of space to pursue his other hobby, sketching the birds outside. Leonard of Quirm is possibly the perfect example of an INTP genius who completely lacks worldly ambition and is absorbed by his own ideas.
Violet Baudelaire
Violet is the oldest Baudelaire sibling and the dreamy inventor who whips up amazing creations to help her family in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. The siblings face a lot of adversity during the course of the series, but Violet doesn’t dwell on the negatives—she rolls up her sleeves, ties her hair back, and gets cracking.
