The Fountainhead

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The Fountainhead
Ayn Rand
1943

Introduction
Author Biography
Plot Summary
Characters
Themes
Style
Historical Context
Critical Overview
Criticism
Sources
Further Reading

Introduction

After Ayn Rand finished writing The Fountain-head, the manuscript was rejected by twelve publishers who claimed, as Laurence Miller notes in an article on the author for the Dictionary of Literary Biography, it was "commercially unsuitable because it was too politically and philosophically controversial, too intellectual, too improbable a story, too long, poorly written, and dull, and because it employed an unsympathetic hero." After Rand submitted it to Bobbs-Merrill, editor Archie Ogden recommended that the book be published. When his superiors disagreed, Ogden countered, "If this is not the book for you, then I am not the editor for you." This was enough to convince them to publish the novel in 1943.

While initial reviews were mixed, the public's approval grew each year until 1945, when it stayed on the best-seller list for twenty-six weeks. Sales are currently near three million copies. Readers responded not only to the story of brilliant architect Howard Roark's struggle to gain success in New York City; they also became intrigued with the philosophy Rand outlined through the characters and their interactions. Many readers became devoted followers of objectivism, Rand's vision of how to achieve an ideal self as expressed in the novel. Nathaniel Branden, who would become her protégé, claimed, as quoted by Miller, that the novel gave him "the sense of a door opening, intellectually, spiritually, psychologically—a passageway into another dimension, like a summons from the future." Miller notes that The Fountainhead helped to ensure Rand "a place as one of the most controversial, colorful, and influential writers of the twentieth century."

Author Biography

Ayn Rand was born Alisa Rosenbaum in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 2, 1905 to Fronz (a chemist) and Anna. Alisa taught herself to read at age six and by age nine, she determined that she would become a writer of idealist heroes like those created by Sir Walter Scott and Victor Hugo. The family fled the Bolshevik Revolution soon after it began in 1917 and relocated to the Crimea. The Communists confiscated her father's business and, as a result, the family was thrown into poverty. During this period she studied American history and became enthralled with the democratic system, which would have a profound effect on her fiction. When she and her family returned to Russia, she began studies in philosophy and history at the University of Petrograd where she graduated in 1924. That same year, her passion for films prompted her to enroll in the State Institute for Cinema Arts where she studied screen writing.

In 1925, she was granted permission to leave Russia to visit relatives, but she would never return to her homeland. She stayed in New York City for six months, extended her visa, and then moved to Hollywood where she changed her name and hoped to start a career as a screenwriter. Rand met Cecil B. DeMille on her second day in California, and the movie mogul immediately offered her a job as an extra and then a script reader on his film King of Kings. A week later she met actor Frank O'Connor, who became her husband until his death fifty years later.

During the next few years Rand worked in various studio positions including in the wardrobe department until she sold her first screenplay, Red Pawn, to Universal Studios in 1932. Her play Night of January 16th was produced first in Hollywood and later on Broadway. In 1933, she completed her first novel, We the Living, which was rejected by several publishers until Macmillan agreed to accept the manuscript in 1936. The book, a fictional representation of her life in Russia after the communist takeover, was not well received by the public or critics. The previous year, she began writing The Fountainhead, determined to create her vision of an ideal hero. After twelve publishers rejected it, the novel was finally published in 1943, and within two years it had become a best-seller.

The Fountainhead, along with her popular last novel, Atlas Shrugged, expresses the philosophy she termed objectivism, which she would outline in lectures and essays from 1962 through 1976. During the last decades of her life she became a popular and controversial public philosopher, speaker, and cult figure. Her death in New York City on March 6, 1982 triggered new public and academic interest in her life, fiction, and her objectivist movement.

Plot Summary

Part I

The novel opens as the Stanton Institute of Technology is graduating its 1922 class. The dean has just informed Howard Roark that he is being expelled for "insubordination,"—for refusing to complete his assignments according to the standards of the college. Roark is not upset by the expulsion; rather, he admits that he should have quit the school long ago since he claims that he has learned very little there. Valedictory speaker Peter Keating, who has conformed to Stanton's rules, is considered by all to be the school's next success story. Yet Keating is unsure about his next move. He asks Roark's advice about whether to continue his studies in Europe or to accept a position with the Francon Architectural Firm in New York City. Roark tells him that he will learn nothing by studying the architecture of the past.

Both men move to New York City. Keating shows little creative promise but learns how to manipulate his employer, Guy Francon, and so quickly rises in the firm, becoming chief designer. Fran-con's beautiful daughter Dominique recognizes Keating's and her father's mediocrity and the pandering they must engage in to become successful. She openly criticizes them in her interior design column in The New York Banner. Overwhelmed by her beauty and commanding presence, Keating proposes marriage to her, but she refuses.

Roark becomes assistant to Henry Cameron, a renegade architect who once had enjoyed success for his innovative buildings, including the city's first skyscraper. When, however, the classic style came into vogue, Cameron refused to adapt and thus now receives few contracts. Roark works with the older man for three years, during which time he perfects his skills and establishes his architectural vision.

Keating's clever manipulation of others, coupled with Roark's willingness to assist in the improvement of his classmate's designs, affords him much success. When Keating determines to win a competition to design "the world's most beautiful building," he sees an opportunity to gain a partnership in the firm. He acknowledges, though, that he needs help from Roark, who cannot pass up any opportunity to create his own designs. Roark's plans, altered somewhat by Keating's addition of classical flourishes, win the award and Keating becomes a partner.

Part II

When Cameron retires, Roark accepts a job at Francon, but after refusing to work with others on his first design there, he is fired. He is later hired by another builder who lets him design independently but alters his work after it is completed. As a result, Roark determines to work for himself and is soon contracted by newspaperman Austen Heller to build his home. Roark cannot find other clients to appreciate his unique designs and so is forced to close his office and find work in a granite quarry in Connecticut, owned by Guy Francon.

That summer, Roark meets Dominique, and the two enter into an intense sexual relationship. He is soon called back to the city, though, to design an apartment building. After its completion, Roark gains recognition and more contracts. His success is noticed by Ellsworth Toohey, architectural critic for The Banner. Toohey, who has falsely assumed the role of humanist, feels threatened by Roark's individuality and so sets out to ruin him. On his recommendation, Roark is hired to build a "Temple to the Human Spirit," which upon completion, Toohey claims is heretical. As a result, Roark's career suffers.

Dominique marries Keating as an escape from her conflicted feelings about Roark, but the marriage lasts less than two years when she meets and decides to marry Banner publisher Gail Wynand. Recognizing and appreciating Roark's genius, Wynand hires him to build a house for Dominique, and the two men become friends. As Wynand uses his influence to get contracts for Roark, the architect's reputation grows.

Part III

In an effort to bolster his own reputation, Keating asks Roark to design a low-cost development called Cortlandt Homes. Roark agrees, with Keat-ing's promise that he will not alter the plans. When Keating passes the design off as his own and allows it to be altered, Roark blows up the project with Dominique's help. When Roark goes on trial for the bombing, Wynand supports his friend, which turns public opinion against him. Toohey sees the situation as an opportunity for him to destroy Wynand, who has just fired him, and Roark. Toohey engineers a strike against the Banner. To save himself, Wynand writes an editorial condemning Roark, which salvages his career but breaks his spirit.

At his trial, Roark convinces the jury that he had a right to destroy his project and is found not guilty. Roger Enright buys Cortlandt Homes and commissions Roark to rebuild it. Keating's reputation is destroyed after the public discovers that he put his name on the designs. After Dominique divorces Wynand, she marries Roark, who agrees to build a skyscraper for Wynand, who tells him, "'Build it as a monument to that spirit which is yours … and could have been mine.'"

Characters

Henry Cameron

Roark seeks out Henry Cameron when he first comes to New York because of the architect's rep-utation as a man of independent vision. Unfortunately, Cameron's individualism has cost him a successful career. When Roark convinces Cameron to take him on as his assistant, the older man helps him develop his own style. Cameron is the first to recognize and help promote Roark's genius. At one point he tests Roark's resolve, suggesting that he sell out and give the public what it wants in order to gain approval and success. Roark's response, that he would rather starve, pleases Cameron and proves the older man's faith in him. Eventually, Roark must strike out on his own when Cameron cannot get enough contracts to keep his business going. Cameron's integrity represents the devotion to the individualistic spirit for its own sake, even in the face of social and economic failure, which is an important tenet of objectivism.

Lois Cook

Presenting herself as a nonconformist, Lois Cook breaks the rules of a society that she believes is trapped in conventionality. She does not try to fit standards of beauty or respectability. Yet her rebellion is shallow at heart. Instead of railing against social corruption or shoddy journalism, she instead chooses not to bathe regularly. She passes herself off as an intellectual but her writing, which breaks all the rules of grammar and form, ultimately is unintelligible.

Mike Donnigan

Working class electrician Mike Donnigan refuses to be swayed by public opinion. Though possessing only an average intelligence, he recognizes the quality of Roark's work and the mediocrity of Francon's and Keating's. His friendship with Roark develops through their mutual appreciation of well-constructed buildings.

Dominique Francon

Guy Francon's daughter, Dominique, is a troubled pessimist throughout most of the novel. She recognizes both the genius of men like Roark and the mediocrity of her father and Keating but is certain that the mediocrity will win out, especially under the influence of destructive men like Toohey. She falls in love with Roark, who represents to her the ideal man, yet she is convinced that he will ultimately be destroyed by a society that refuses to recognize and value his superiority. As a result, she tries to interfere with Roark's work before he is brought down by others.

Her feelings for Roark are further complicated by her determination that such a man will make too many demands on her. Thus she tries to protect herself by entering into relationships with inferior men. The characterization of Dominique turns troubling as she begins to exhibit masochistic tendencies. Rand suggests that Dominique punishes herself through degrading sexual experiences with men like Keating and Wynand because of her conflicted feelings about Roark. Yet her initial sexual encounter with Roark, which she thoroughly enjoys, also requires her submission.

Guy Francon

Keating works for Guy Francon, who heads the most successful architectural firm in the city. Francon has risen to the top not because of his talents, which are decidedly mediocre, but through the manipulation of others' abilities and through the development of keen sense of taste and style. Attuned to the latest trends, he gives the public what it wants, which is, when the novel opens, a reversion to the heavy ornamentation and flourishes of the classical era. His success has depended on his ability to copy that design. Although Francon is a second-hander, he does reflect positive social qualities: a sense of style and an appreciation of beauty, as his devotion to the classical age reflects. He also appreciates his daughter's independence and individuality. His ability to recognize the merit of these qualities prompts him to refuse to testify against Roark at his trial.

Media Adaptations

The Fountainhead, the film version of the novel, was released by Warner Brothers in 1949 and directed by King Vidor. The film stars Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal.
An audio version of The Fountainhead was released by Blackstone Audio Books in 1995 and read by Christopher Hurt.

Catherine Halsey

Peter Keating becomes engaged to Catherine Halsey, Toohey's niece. When Keating drops her for Dominique she turns to a life of altruism under her uncle's direction, submerging herself completely in her duty to others. As a result of giving up a sense of selfhood, she becomes a bitter old woman. By the end of the novel, she is a mean-spirited Washington bureaucrat, barking orders—"not big orders or cruel orders; just mean little ones—about plumbing and disinfectants."

Austen Heller

Roark's benefactor, newspaper columnist Austen Heller, supports Roark's as well as others' individuality. He asks Roark to build a home for him and supports political prisoners around the world.

Peter Keating

Keating arrives in New York at the same time as Roark, but the two architects take very different paths. Keating achieves success rather quickly by learning, under Guy Francon's tutelage, how to manipulate others. Harboring no illusions about his lack of creativity, Keating easily accepts the help of others; in some cases he actually puts his name on others' work.

His lack of a clear vision of self is evident in his difficulty in making decisions, as he shows when he cannot decide at the beginning of the novel whether to continue his studies or to join Francon's firm. As a result of this insecurity and his desire for approval, he surrounds himself with things he thinks will help define him: expensive clothes, important friends like Ellsworth Toohey, and Dominique, his trophy wife. He subordinates any sense of self to his drive to succeed, evident as he discards Catherine Halsey, the woman he loves, for Dominique because of her beauty and stature in society. His refusal to develop his own identity results in his downfall when the public discovers that he has been claiming others' work as his own.

Kent Lansing

With "the patience of a Chinese executioner" and "the hide of a battleship," salesman Kent Lansing fights for what he feels is right. As a member of the board of advisors for the Aquitania Hotel, he hires Roark to finish the project because he recognizes the architect's integrity and talent. He serves as a middleman to help convince the public of Roark's gifts.

Steven Mallory

As his friend Roark notes, Steven Mallory's sculptures are "not what men are, but what men could be—and should be." Mallory's talents enable him to create "the heroic in man," similar to what Roark achieves in the construction of his skyscrapers. Mallory, like Cameron and Roark, has been unappreciated for his innovative vision and as a result, when Roark first meets him, he is bitter and cynical about ever achieving recognition. Unlike Roark, pubic opinion affects him. After continual rejections he turns to alcohol for escape. When Roark hires him to create a sculpture for the Stoddard temple, the architect helps him have confidence in his abilities without regard to others' judgments. As a result, he creates an exquisite sculpture of Dominique.

Howard Roark

Howard Roark is a brilliant architect whose innovative designs reflect his stanch individualism. At the beginning of the novel, he is expelled from school for his inability to conform to tradition. In her preliminary notes for the novel, Rand comments that Roark contains an "utter selfishness"—an "iron conviction" to "be himself at any cost—the only thing he really wants of life." He insists, "All that which proceeds from man's independent ego is good. All that which proceeds from man's dependence upon men is evil." What he wants is to be able to create his vision of the perfect building. He tells his mentor Cameron that he decided to be an architect because he does not believe in God. He builds, he claims, "Because I love this earth. That's all I love. I don't like the shape of things on this earth. I want to change them." He is willing to face criminal charges to maintain his integrity and his right to achieve his architectural vision.

His inability to compromise his ideals results in a difficult struggle to realize this vision. Society's rejection bothers him only in that it prevents him from this task, for he is never shaken in his confidence in himself and his abilities. In that sense, he is a static character in the novel. He learns a great deal about architecture during the course of the novel but nothing about himself, since he is fully formed when we first meet him after he is expelled from Stanton. Roark becomes a touchstone, however, for the other characters. As they come in contact with his overwhelming sense of integrity and individualism, readers measure the other characters against him.

Ellsworth Toohey

Ellsworth Toohey, the architectural critic for The Banner, promotes collectivism and so condemns Roark's display of individualism, insisting that the architect's sensibility is inherently selfish. As a result, he attacks Roark in his column called "One Small Voice." Toohey claims humanitarian motives for his criticism of men like Roark. Yet his jealousy of their talent is the real cause of his efforts to destroy them. The narrator notes that when he was seven, Toohey had attacked a child who gained the attention he craved.

Toohey also tries to destroy Roark because the architect threatens the powerful position he enjoys. He has successfully passed himself off as a Marxist intellectual and has, as a result, developed a cult-like following. Toohey requires his disciples' blind obedience as he promotes his destructive form of communism, which requires a complete surrender of the self. Men like Roark whose success depends only on their own personal strength and vision point out the hollowness inherent in Toohey's philosophy.

Gus Webb

Another one of Toohey's followers, Gus Webb is, like Lois Cook, a shallow nonconformist architect. Unlike Roark, however, architect Webb has no creative spirit. He breaks the rules because he can, not because his vision compels him to. Devoted to the "international Style," he designs buildings that become a mere jumble of boxes without any structure or aesthetic value. He follows the rules of nonconformity as slavishly as traditionalists do. He does not wash regularly and breaks other accepted rules of behavior because that is what is expected of nonconformists. The shallowness of his devotion to "the workers' revolution" becomes apparent in his response to Roark's bombing of Cortlandt, when he comments, "I wish he'd blasted it when it was full of people—a few children blown to pieces—then you'd have something. Then I'd love it. The movement could use it."

Gail Wynand

Wynand is a powerful newspaper mogul who, like Dominique, has a pessimistic view of the world, even though he was able to successfully escape New York's Hell's Kitchen. He has built up his financial empire by "giv[ing] people what they want," with little regard for integrity. When he discovers that quality in Roark, Wynand determines to help him succeed. Wynand is convinced that he can manipulate public opinion, and so supports Roark when he is tried for the Cortlandt bombing. When the public subsequently turns against him, he tells himself, "You were a ruler of men. You held a leash. A leash is only a rope with a noose at both ends." Recognizing that his position is in jeopardy, he writes an editorial condemning Roark, which salvages his career but breaks his spirit. Wynand is a truly tragic figure in the novel. He recognizes greatness but does not have the strength of character to become what he admires in Roark.

Themes

Reason

Rand believed that "reason is man's only proper judge of values and his only proper guide to action." She called her philosophy "objectivism" because she wanted to promote a sense of objective reality based on the power to reason. In the novel, Roark exhibits reason as he determines what nourishes his ego and thus sustains his life. The main quality that accomplishes these ends is his individualism. Throughout the novel, he continually refuses to allow others to alter his vision or to dictate the terms of his success.

Rand suggested that those who choose not to think rationally and look to others for guidance become second-handers as they refuse to take responsibility for their own lives. Peter Keating is the prime example of this type of individual. His insecurity prompts his lapses in reason as he tries to pass off Roark's work as his own. His inability to determine proper values and proper action results in his destruction.

Individualism versus Collectivism

Rand presents her philosophy of the merits of individualism and collectivism through two of her main characters: Howard Roark and Ellsworth Toohey. She champions individualism in her depiction of Roark, whose nobility rests in large part on his determination not to be influenced by others, especially in regards to his creative vision. Roark emphasizes that individuality fosters self-sufficiency, which enables him to successfully produce artistic architectural structures. Rand insisted in a 1934 letter to H. L. Mencken (as published in the Letters of Ayn Rand, edited by Michael S. Berliner), "I believe that man will always be an individualist, whether he knows it or not, and I want to make it my duty to make him know it" (Berliner, ed.).

Collectivism, which depends on self-sacrifice to the good of the group, becomes destructive in the characterization of Toohey and his followers. Toohey promotes this philosophy only to gain control of his followers who he has convinced to give up their individuality in their devotion to the welfare of others. This exploitative system requires followers to subordinate themselves to the will of other people. The resulting self-abnegation undermines the honesty of the self and the human spirit.

Style

Structure

Rand was a great admirer of Aristotle, especially his literary theories. She believed that a novel should exhibit an Aristotelian logic, that all of its parts (plot, characters, and setting) should unite to reveal theme, reflected through and controlled by the imagination of the author. In her The Romantic Manifesto, she insists that these parts, or "attributes" as she calls them "unite into so integrated a sum that no starting point can be discerned." In a letter to Gerald Loeb she declares, "A STORY IS AN END IN ITSELF…. It is written as a man is born—an organic whole, dictated only by its own laws and its own necessity." Stephen Cox writes in his book on The Fountainhead, as noted by scholar Chris Sciabarra, that Rand's fiction reveals this "startling intensity of integration." The Fountainhead exhibits this organic unity as the characters, who reflect Rand's philosophy, come into conflict with each other that results in an ultimate justification of her beliefs in a setting that symbolizes those beliefs.

Symbols

The title of the novel symbolizes the character of Howard Roark and Rand's insistence that men like him should be considered the source of all human progress, as the fountainhead is the source of a river. She suggests that an independent spirit coupled with a creative imagination will produce an ideal man who will, through his inventions, help society prosper. Roark gains satisfaction by being true to his independent spirit, and at the same time, that spirit aids society as it creates functional and artistic buildings.

Rand employs the image of skyscrapers to suggest similar qualities. When Roark rejects the traditional stone and wood materials for glass and plastics, molding them into open, innovative designs, he becomes the symbol of progress. The fusion of the images of the fountainhead and the skyscraper occurs at the end of the novel when Roark is standing on the top platform at the construction site of the Wynand Building. His devotion to his individualism has propelled him to this height at the top of the skyscraper, as noted by Dominique who watches from below. She describes how he becomes a part of the landscape. Raising her eyes, she sees him high above the city where "there was only the ocean and the sky and the figure of Howard Roark."

Topics for Further Study

View the film version of The Fountainhead and critique it. Is Rand's philosophy of objectivism as evident in the film as it is in the novel? Are the characters believable? What changes would you make in the film to improve it?
Compare Rand's political themes in her novel We The Living with the more social focus in The Fountainhead.
Research the development of the skyscraper. Was there as much resistance to this new form of architecture as there is in the novel? Who were the innovative architects during the early part of the century in America? Did they also struggle for recognition and acceptance of their designs?
In the novel, Rand condemns collectivism. Find arguments that support this movement and any examples that you can find of successful versions of it.

Historical Context

The Great Depression

The Great Depression held America in its grip during the 1930s. The depression was a severe economic crisis that occurred in the United States after the stock market crash of 1929. The impact on Americans was staggering. In 1933, the worst year, unemployment rose to sixteen million, about one third of the available labor force. During the early months, men and women searched eagerly and dili-gently for any type of work. However, after several months of no sustained employment, they became discouraged and often gave up. President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt's New Deal policies, which offered the country substantial economic relief, helped mitigate the effects of the depression, but the recovery was not complete until the government channeled money into the war effort in the early 1940s.

The Red Decade

During the Great Depression, impoverished Americans began to doubt whether they would ever attain the American dream of success. As a result, the traditional spirit of individualism began to be replaced by communal sentiment. This new zeitgeist (spirit of the age) had important political repercussions: the repeal of Prohibition, the rise of labor organizations, and the institution of social safety nets, most notable after the Social Security Act was passed. Social reformers such as Jane Ad-dams and Florence Kelly, who had helped push through the Social Security Act, promoted a sense of society as a family rather than a group of individuals with self-serving goals. Many such reformers helped support Roosevelt's New Deal policy, with its implementation of social safety nets.

This new sense of community was in part inspired by the spread of socialism and communism in Europe and Russia. After prominent intellectuals lent support to these parties and engineered strikes and demonstrations throughout the country, historians labeled the 1930s "The Red Decade." The focus of many of these progressives was on class consciousness in America, especially on the plight of the working class as juxtaposed against the vast wealth and power of the industrialists.

Compare & Contrast

1930s: Joseph Stalin is the oppressive dictator of the Soviet Union. His reign of terror lasts for two more decades.

Today: In 1991, President Mikhail Gorbachev orders the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and a new Commonwealth of Independent States is formed by the countries that formerly made up the U.S.S.R.
1930s: Germany invades Poland in 1939 and World War II begins.

Today: George W. Bush declares a war on terrorism after the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in September 2001.
1930s: America and the world is in the grips of a severe economic depression.

Today: America sees one of its strongest economic booms in the 1990s. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, that boom is now over, but, even on the brink of a recession, the economy is very stable.

World War II

The world experienced a decade of aggression in the 1930s that would culminate in World War II. This second world war resulted from the rise of totalitarian regimes in Germany, Italy, and Japan. These militaristic regimes gained control as a result of the depression experienced by most of the world in the early 1930s and from the conditions created by the peace settlements following World War I. The dictatorships established in each country encouraged expansion into neighboring countries. In Germany, Adolf Hitler strengthened the army during the 1930s. In 1935, Benito Mussolini's Italian troops took Ethiopia. From 1936 through 1939, Spain was engaged in civil war involving Francisco Franco's fascist army, aided by Germany and Italy. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, and in March 1939, occupied Czechoslovakia. Italy took Albania in April 1939. On September 1, 1939, one week after Nazi Germany and the U.S.S.R. signed the Treaty of Nonaggression, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. On September 3, 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany after a U-boat sank the British ship Athenia off the coast of Ireland. Another British ship, Courageous, was sunk on September 19th. All the members of the British Commonwealth, except Ireland, soon joined Britain and France in their declaration of war.

The Cold War

Soon after World War II, when Russian leader Joseph Stalin set up satellite communist states in Eastern Europe and Asia, the Cold War began, ushering in a new age of warfare and fear triggered by several circumstances: the United States' and the U.S.S.R.'s emergence as superpowers; each country's ability to use the atomic bomb; and communist expansion and U.S. determination to check it. Each side amassed stockpiles of nuclear weapons that could not only annihilate the other country, but also the world. Both sides declared the other the enemy and redoubled their commitment to fight for their own ideology and political and economic dominance. As China fell to the Communists in 1949, Russia crushed the Hungarian revolution in 1956, and the United States adopted the role of world policeman, the Cold War accelerated.

The Cold War induced anxiety among Americans, who feared both annihilation by Russians and the spread of communism at home. Americans were encouraged to stereotype all Russians as barbarians and atheists who were plotting to overthrow the U.S. government and brainwash its citizens. The fear that communism would spread to the United States led to suspicion and paranoia, and many suspected communists or communist sympathizers saw their lives ruined. This "red scare" was heightened by the indictment of ex-government official Alger Hiss (1950) and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1951) for passing defense secrets to the Russians. Soon, the country was engaged in a determined and often hysterical witch-hunt for communists, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House of Representatives' Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In 1954, McCarthy was censured by the Senate for his unethical behavior during the Committee sessions. By the time of McCarthy's death in 1957, almost six million Americans had been investigated by government agencies because of their suspected communist sympathies, yet only a few had been indicted.

Critical Overview

Critical response to The Fountainhead after it was published in 1952 was decidedly mixed. Readers disagreed about the merit of the philosophy Rand expressed in the novel as well as her characterizations and writing style.

In "Ayn Rand's Neurotic Personalities of Our Times," Paul Deane notes that while "some critics have praised Rand for writing novels of ideas, calling her a thoughtful spokesperson for laissez-faire capitalism, many others have found her work too simplistic and didactic." Positive reviews include Dayana Stetco, who, in her overview of Rand for the Reference Guide to American Literature, claims that the novel is "a celebration of the self—a victory of individualism over collectivism." Chris Sciabarra in his article on Rand for American Writers insists that Rand has clearly and persuasively presented complex ideas" in the novel. Lorine Pruette's review for the New York Times Book Review commented that this "novel of ideas," unusual for a female author, revealed Rand to be "a writer of great power" with "a subtle and ingenious mind." Pruette favorably compared the novel to Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain and Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder. Her review, however, criticized the stance Rand took on the incompatibility of self interest and altruism.

Some reviewers find the characters in the novel to be merely mouthpieces for Rand's philosophy. In his article on the author for National Review, Joseph Sobran writes that Rand's "characters, on the page, often seem to be played by mediocre thespians who can't resist making their lines pat and their gestures extravagant." He adds that "every speech seems to hammer home Objectivist doctrine." Philip Gordon, in "The Extroflective Hero: A Look at Ayn Rand," insists that the novel's characters are "psychically stiff heroes" and that the author "presents nothing new with which to penetrate the legitimate and salient deliberation regarding connections of self to others."

Others, however, praise Rand's literary skills. Sciabarra argues that Rand is "in command throughout stylistically and intellectually" and that the novel is "remarkable in its literary style and plot, the complexity and interest of its several memorable characters, the interweaving of her philosophy within the framework of fiction, and its epic scope and grandeur." While N. L. Rothman in the Saturday Review criticizes Rand's negative position on collectivism, he applauds her characterization of Howard Roark. Pruette applauds Rand's "capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly."

Criticism

Wendy Perkins

Perkins teaches American literature and film and has published several essays on American and British authors. In the following essay, Perkins examines Rand's expression of her objectivist philosophy in The Fountainhead.

Ayn Rand presents Howard Roark, the main character in her influential novel, The Fountainhead, in an innovative way. Readers expect a main character to be fully rounded yet to develop in some way during the course of the story. Heroes, when faced with a conflict, usually reveal new aspects of their character that were previously unknown to them and to the readers. Often the thrust of the narrative involves the process of the main characters gaining valuable insight into their inner selves.

In The Fountainhead Rand rejects this traditional form of character development by presenting a hero who at the beginning of the novel is fully realized. Howard Roark knows exactly who he is when he is expelled from the Stanton Institute of Technology for "insubordination," and Rand quickly outlines his character for her readers. Roark does not change during the course of the story or reveal new aspects of his personality. The conflicts he faces only reinforce the portrait of him that Rand has already presented. She has chosen Roark as her protagonist for a different purpose; his static character becomes a touchstone through which Rand expresses her philosophy of objectivism, especially as it concerns the definition of the self. Through her characterization of Roark and his interactions with the other characters in the novel, Rand presents her vision of the ideal man as well as the second-hander.

Rand's ideal man is assertive and aggressive in his drive for success and through his integrity becomes the fountainhead of human progress. His integrity stems from what Rand sees as the three cardinal values of objectivism: reason, purpose, and self-esteem, and their corresponding virtues: rationality, productiveness, and pride. In Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal, Rand explained that "production is the application of reason to the problem of survival." Yet the ideal man must also acquire "the values of character that makes [his life] worth sustaining." The most important value, that of self-esteem, translates into an ethic of rational selfishness. Rand insists in "The Objectivist Ethics" that the ideal man lives "for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. To live for his own sake means that the achievement of his own happiness is man's highest moral purpose."

Howard Roark becomes the embodiment of Rand's objectivist ideals. From the beginning of the novel, he displays a rational selfishness in his assurance of his own talents. This clear concept of self will not allow him to compromise his vision of creating the finest buildings in the city. At the end of the novel he justifies his bombing of the Cortlandt project when he insists to the jury, "the first right on earth is the right of the ego. Man's first duty is to himself. His moral law is never to place his prime goal within the persons of others." He argues that he had to destroy the project because others had taken it over and thus thwarted his prime goal—to realize his own architectural vision.

Rand places Roark into conflict with others in order not only to reveal the qualities of the ideal hero, but also to flesh out her concept of what she calls second-handers. She applies this term, which was her original working title for the novel, to those who lack clear convictions and a concept of self. As a result, they become destructive to themselves as well as the others who come into contact with them. Three characters in the novel, Peter Keating, Ellsworth Toohey, and Gail Wynand, all exhibit variations of Rand's definition of second-handers.

Throughout his career Peter Keating tries to pass off Roark's creative vision as his own since he can only accomplish a constant, mediocre replication of the designs of the past. Keating's lack of original thought and action independent of public opinion define him as a second-hander. His sense of inferiority creates a lack of integrity that allows him to let others control his life. He chooses his clothes, his wife, and his actions according to accepted guidelines rather than from a clear sense of individual need and desire. As a result, he helps to destroy the life of the woman he loves when he decides that she will not help him achieve his vision of success. Keating is ultimately ruined by his inability to establish his own identity when the public discovers that he has claimed Roark's design of the Cortlandt project as his own.

Ellsworth Toohey is a parasitic second-hander who contributes nothing to the society off of which he feeds. He displays a brute selfishness as he sacrifices others in his quest for power. Claiming to work toward creating brotherhood among men, he instructs his followers to "feel contempt for your own priceless little ego," for "only then can you achieve the true, broad peace of selflessness, the merging of your spirit with the vast collective spirit of mankind."

His true motive, however, emerges in his recognition that "every system of ethics that preached sacrifice grew into a world power and ruled millions of men" and concludes that "the man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master." By appropriating a collectivist philosophy, Toohey hopes to wield absolute control over the lives of his followers as his promotion of selflessness obliterates their independent thoughts and actions. He attempts to destroy Roark because his success will contradict the collectivist philosophy he promotes, and therefore will strip him of the power he seeks.

In Gail Wynand, Rand traces the development of the novel's only truly tragic figure that has the potential to evolve into an ideal man, but whose inability to sustain a clear sense of self causes him ultimately to become a second-hander. Wynand had the ambition and resolve to pull himself out of the slums of Hell's Kitchen and become a successful newspaper magnate. Yet in his goal to "give people what they want," he has pandered to society's lowest tastes and as a result, his newspaper has become a vulgar tabloid. When he meets Roark, he recognizes the man's nobility and firmness of purpose and so determines that he will support him.

Wynand, ultimately however, has become a second-hander who has allowed the public to dictate the direction of his success. He assumes that he has power over public opinion when he throws his support to Roark during his trial, but his readers, made cynical over the years by his sensationalistic press, have lost their ability to appreciate true virtue. In an effort to save himself he gives into public opinion, recognizing the power he has granted them over his vision of success. The editorial he writes condemning Roark's action salvages his career but breaks his spirit.

In her outline of the principles of objectivism, Rand writes, "Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments," suggesting, as Leonard Peikoff notes, that its purpose is "to concretize the artist's fundamental view of existence." In the The Fountainhead, Rand has selectively recreated her vision of reality, structuring the characterizations in the novel to illustrate her unique concept of the self.

Source: Wendy Perkins, Critical Essay on The Fountainhead, in Novels for Students, The Gale Group, 2003.

Tamara Sakuda

Sakuda holds a bachelor of arts degree in communications and is an independent writer. In this essay, Sakuda contemplates Rand's book by examining an individual's selfish right to freedom of expression versus the rights of the collective.

Ayn Rand believed in the value of individual worth above all else. She felt the ideal man had a selfish desire to express his own truths no matter what the cost. Rand's novel, The Fountainhead, demonstrates the importance of man's struggle for independence and freedom from the tyranny of a collective society. The protagonist, or hero, of The Fountainhead is Howard Roark. Roark is a man of integrity who is driven to create by his values and his values alone. Other people's thoughts and criticisms do not sway Roark from his architectural dreams and he selfishly clings to these values. Throughout the book, his work is ridiculed and publicly condemned. His buildings are thought to be poorly designed and monstrous. Roark says the pain of criticism only reaches a part of him; it does not engulf him. The ability of Roark to withstand his detractors shows the strength of his ego. He has an absolute belief in the validity of his own ideas. As Mimi Reisel Gladstein states in The Ayn Rand Companion, "What Rand puts forth in The Fountainhead is a rationale for 'selfishness' or egoism as a moral good."

The Fountainhead opens with Roark contemplating his expulsion from the Architectural School of the Stanton Institute of Technology. Instead of being devastated by this, Roark laughs to himself as he remembers the actual meeting. Later as he enters the porch of his boarding house, his landlady extends her apologies, but the words do not register with Roark. He is not distraught by the expulsion. Roark's own belief in his talent arms him for the next phase of his career—a career as an architect. Although Roark is confident of his destiny, his dean and his landlady are convinced his judgment and values are flawed. In their view, Roark is doomed to fail.

Juxtaposed to the character of Roark is Peter Keating. He is the son of Roark's Stanton landlady. Just as Roark's character is used to represent the power of individualism, Rand uses Keating's character to represent the failure of collectivism. Keating is described as handsome and "president of the student body, captain of the track team, member of the most important fraternity and voted the most popular man on campus." Keating is a joiner or, as Rand describes him later in the book, a second-hander. Keating is someone who defines himself by what others believe. He has no true sense of self because he is too impressionable.

Keating graduates first in his class from the same school that expelled Roark. He is offered a job at the most prestigious architectural firm in New York City. Instead of being overjoyed, Keating is full of self-doubt. Should he accept the job offer? Or should he accept a scholarship to study architecture in France? He turns to Roark for advice, which Roark refuses to give. As Keating readies himself for life in New York City, he is still full of doubt, although his mother and dean are convinced his judgment is sound. "But if that boy isn't the greatest architect of this U.S.A., his mother will want to know why!" says Mrs. Keating.

Roark and Keating begin their lives in New York. Keating tries to be all things to all people. He manipulates his co-workers to his advantage, flatters the ego of his boss, Guy Francon, and feigns an interest in rare porcelain to impress his boss's partner. His antics ingratiate him to his superiors. Keating quickly moves up the ranks in the firm. He is considered the golden boy of the architectural world—talented, successful, the man to emulate.

However, Keating still turns to Roark for advice on building design and hates himself for doing so. He is envious of Roark. Roark is not considered successful, but Roark also has no fears, no self doubts. As someone who depends on others for his self worth, Keating lives in fear: fear that his work will not be thought good enough, fear that he cannot measure up to what other expect of him, fear that someday his success will vanish. "Others gave Keating a sense of his own value. Roark gave him nothing. He thought he should seize his drawings and run. The danger was not Roark. The danger was that he, Keating remained."

Roark struggles in his early career. He seeks employment with the only architect whose work he admires, Henry Cameron. After an initial flush of success, Cameron's career spirals downward. When Roark finds him, Cameron is a tired, bitter man who is rejected by his peers. He initially refuses to hire Roark until he discovers the beauty and talent of Roark's drawings. Cameron's firm is a poor one financially, and he cannot afford to pay Roark a decent wage. This does not matter to Roark. He is content and learns a great deal from Cameron. Unlike Keating, the outward trappings of success do not matter to Roark. He is not sustained by the thoughts of others but by his own selfish need to create, to unleash the buildings that live inside his soul.

As Rand moves through the story of Keating and Roark, other characters are introduced who illustrate the continued theme of individualism versus collectivism. For example, Rand's selfish characters are those who do not depend on others for their self worth. They are driven to produce their life's work with no thought as to how it will be received by others. These characters are the creators in her story. Austen Heller, respected newspaper columnist, gives Roark his first commission and $500 to start an office. The house Roark designs and builds for Heller is ridiculed, but Heller does not care. He believes in Roark and remains a staunch defender throughout the story. Steven Mallory is a gifted sculptor who is rejected by the mainstream art world of New York. After Keating rejects Mallory's sculpture for his building, Mallory attempts to shoot a famous critic. In explaining his actions to Roark, Mallory delineates an important distinction in the struggle for the individual against the collective. He speaks of "poor fools" who cannot recognize greatness, but to Mallory the greater sin is "to see it and not want it." Mallory is speaking of the critic who recognizes great art but tries to destroy it so that the collective can be maintained.

Roark calls Rand's conformist characters "second-handers." These characters have no sense of self except what others give to them. Gordon Prescott is an architect who leads his public to believe he is a man of new vision and ideals. In reality, Prescott just puts old design techniques to new uses. Prescott fits Roark's definition of a second-hander because he "borrowed from others to in order to make an impression on others." Prescott's talent and thoughts are second rate and second hand.

Catherine Halsey is another second-hander. She is a timid wisp of a girl who is in love with Keating. However, Keating's mother and Catherine's uncle influence her against marrying him. Keating professes his love for Catherine but he ends up jilting her in favor of another woman with more status. Catherine then devotes herself to a life of social work, not because she wants this as a career, but because her uncle decides her path for her. Years later, Keating runs into Catherine and asks her to lunch. His attempts to apologize are brushed away. To Keating, his love for the timid Catherine was real. To Catherine, the bitter social worker, that love never existed.

Throughout the story, Roark is placed at odds with the second-handers. For instance, Cameron becomes ill and must close his office. Roark looks for work elsewhere. Keating hires him but Roark is soon fired because he refuses to compromise his ideals. This refusal creates setbacks for Roark. He is forced to work in a granite quarry. It is hard, manual labor. This shocks and saddens Roark's friends but not Roark. He continues to believe in himself, as he tells his friend Mike, "I'll save enough money and come back. Or maybe someone will send for me before then." Roark is not embittered by his outward situation. He is still an individual with value. His buildings are still there inside of him and he knows he will create them someday.

It is while working at the granite quarry, that Roark meets Dominique Francon. She is the daughter of Keating's boss and an ideal beauty. An explosive love affair soon follows. It is a difficult relationship. Mimi Reisel Gladstein in her book, The Ayn Rand Companion, characterizes Dominique as someone who is convinced that good does not stand a chance in this world and as a result does not let herself care about anything. Then she meets Howard Roark. Dominique vows to destroy Roark, even while admitting that she loves him, because she feels Roark and his work are too good for this world. Dominique is not a second-hander, but she does fear happiness. Roark amazingly takes Dominique's confession in stride. He sees the inner beauty and potential in Dominique. He is confident in his love for her, and he is confident that Dominique can come to love him openly on her own terms. Even when Dominque marries Keating, Roark tells her,

You must learn not to be afraid of this world. Not to be held by it as you are now. Never to be hurt by it as you were in that courtroom. I must let you learn it. I can't help you. You must find your own way. When you have, you'll come back to me.

While Rand consistently pits second-handers like Keating against Roark, there is one character, which is a true villain in this story—Ellsworth Toohey. Rand describes Toohey as fragile looking, like a "chicken just emerging from the egg." Toohey is anything but fragile inside. He thrives on power and its accumulation. He purports to be a truly selfless hero: someone who cares for the masses and the struggles of the mediocre man. In reality he uses the weaknesses of others to control them. In his childhood, his aunt saw through him and said, "You're a maggot Elsie, you feed on sores." "Then I'll never starve," was his reply. He uses his positions of newspaper columnist, lecturer, and author to advance what he deems appropriate in art, architecture, novels, etc. It is through Toohey's control of collective opinion that he achieves power. As Roark's work begins to receive acclaim, Toohey looks for ways to destroy him. Toohey realizes the threat of a selfish, independent man. Men like Roark do not stand for mediocrity. Toohey cannot influence Roark. Even worse, if Roark achieves fame, then he will influence men, not Toohey.

The Fountainhead culminates with a trial. Roark is accused of blowing up a government housing project. He designed the project with the provision that it is built to his specifications. When the building is changed; he blows it up. Roark defends himself at the trial. It is Roark who chooses his jury. It is a panel made up of: "two executives of industrial concerns, two engineers, a mathematician, a truck driver, a bricklayer, an electrician, a gardener, and three factory workers." The jury is described as tough but Roark chose wisely. Most of these men have the capacity to create and be independent in their chosen work. These men know what it is like to experience the exhilaration of creation. Others on the jury, the factory workers, surely know how it feels to be yoked to the collective of mediocrity.

It is during Roark's final arguments that he emerges as a truly selfish hero. Roark speaks of those men who throughout the ages have been creators. "The great creators—the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors—stood alone against the men of their time." Roark talks of how all inventions were initially opposed or considered foolish. He speaks of the need for independence. "The creator lives for his work. He needs no other men. His primary goal is within himself. The parasite lives second-hand. He needs others. Others become his prime motive."

Roark believes that to be a hero he must be selfish. According to Mimi Reisel Gladstone in The Ayn Rand Companion, Roark believes that only by living for one's self can one accomplish the extraordinary. Roark also believes that man cannot share his intellect or his creative truths with others. He says there is no such thing as a "collective brain." Roark's buildings are his creations. They belong to him even though others can enjoy them. Rand then uses Roark to prove the primacy of the individual versus the collective. Rand is speaking directly through Roark when he speaks of what he deems a crowning achievement of his values, his country America. Roark believes America is the noblest country on earth. As a Russian immigrant, Rand believed this too. Roark states that American values are not based on the idea of selfless service, but rather on the idea that each man has a right to the pursuit of happiness. "His own happiness. Not anyone else's. A private, personal, selfish motive. Look at the results." Against all odds, the jury finds Roark, the selfish hero, innocent. His actions are vindicated.

At the end of the book, Dominique visits Roark, now her husband, as he is working on his greatest project, a skyscraper commissioned by Mr. Gail Wynand. It was to be a testament to Wynand's life but instead Wynand asks that the building be a monument to Roark's spirit—the spirit of a selfish hero who shows that the value of the individual is what truly matters.

What Do I Read Next?

The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z (1990), edited by Harry Binswanger, is a collection of her writings that expresses her philosophy of objectivism.
Rand's Atlas Shrugged (1957) presents another independent hero that lives by the author's objectivist philosophy.
John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1939) offers a compelling argument for collectivism, a movement Rand condemns in The Fountainhead.
Rand's We the Living, her most autobiographical novel, presents her philosophy from a more political point of view.

Source: Tamara Sakuda, Critical Essay on The Fountainhead, in Novels for Students, The Gale Group, 2003.

Paul Deane

In the following essay, Deane praises the psychological realism of the characters in Rand's novel.

The philosophy of Ayn Rand, Objectivism, has been subject to intensive analysis and discussion. Interest in her theories has led critics to overlook largely her work as novelist. While it may fairly be said that her plots, except for We the Living, are amorphous and loose, that there is endless repetition in Atlas Shrugged, and that characters are generally two-dimensional vehicles for ideas, in The Fountainhead she has been almost totally successful in creating thoroughly realized characters whose motivations are psychologically valid. It is always dangerous to talk of "influences" on writers; it may be wiser to talk about "parallels." Howbeit, there are close resemblances between personality types described by Karen Horney in The Neurotic Personality of Our Time (1937) and by Ayn Rand in The Fountainhead (1943). Whether or not one can point to a definite knowledge of Horney and a deliberate use of her conclusions, it is clear that both psychologist and novelist-philosopher have been impressed by the same personality characteristics in American society.

Horney feels that when judgement is passed on individual "neurotics," in a real sense it is being passed on society at the same time. As The Fountainhead makes abundantly clear, a person may deviate from social norms without being neurotic—Howard Roark is a case on point; others, such as Peter Keating, Catherine Halsey, Gail Wynand, and Ellsworth Toohey, who have severe neuroses, may be accepted as fulfilling social values exactly. A neurotic is usually characterized by rigidity of behavior, by lack of flexibility: he has a limited number of options available in adjusting to a given situation. But rigidity may also not be "neurotic" unless it departs from the "normal" cultural pattern (i.e., rigid suspicion of everything new is a quality of small, isolated, peasant cultures; to be suspicious in these circumstances is "normal").

Karen Horney recognizes two major trends in neurosis in our time; both of them figure prominently in The Fountainhead. First is the excessive dependence on the approval or affection of others. Wishing to be liked is neurotic only when it is indiscriminate and out of proportion. Peter Keating, for instance, needs constant reassuring that his work is good, that he is valuable—from everyone. Feelings of inferiority seem to be among the chief evils of our day: Keating's neurosis is based on inferiority.

Though openly successful, Keating is actually a bundle of anxieties. These he attempts to obscure by amassing money, dressing in the prescribed way, following the proper opinions (those of Ellsworth Toohey). He has difficulties making decisions for himself and he hesitates to express selfish wishes. In important areas, such as marriage to Catherine Halsey, he lets himself drift. Without a clear conception of what he wants to do in his work, he ends by doing nothing. Envying everyone more secure and self-confident than himself, Keating becomes a parasite incapable of self direction. Dominique Francon marries him (he does not decide), Howard Roark gives him ideas for his work, Ellsworth Toohey directs his values.

Keating's need for approbation faces an additional cultural hurdle. Our society is based upon competition. This competition implies that each individual has to fight with others, and in any fight, inevitably someone loses. The result is a generally widespread hostility and tension, generated by fear of the potential hostility of others; fear of retaliation for one's own hostility; fear of failure, with resulting economic insecurity, loss of prestige; and fear of success, which, out of envy, may produce the hostility of others. Peter realizes that if he pursues his own desires and achieves success, others may retaliate and he will lose their approval. He sees that he must be modest, inconspicuous, and conventional; he must negate his potentialities; he must be "normal" in a society that paradoxically extols both competitive success and Christian self-sacrifice.

The quest for affection is one reassurance against fear mentioned by Karen Horney. The search for power, prestige, and possession (both of things and of people) is another. The wish to dominate, acquire, and be admired is as normal as the desire for approval. The feeling of power in a normal person may be a recognition of his superior strength (physical or mental). The striving for power may be connected with some cause: religion, patriotism, or work. The neurotic craving for power is born of anxiety, hatred, and feelings of inferiority. Thus "the normal striving for power is born of strength, the neurotic of weakness."

Comparative texts are sometimes revealing. From The Fountainhead:

Ellsworth Monkton Toohey was seven years old when he turned the hose upon Johnny Stokes…. Johnny Stokes was a bright kid with dimples and golden curls: people always turned to look at Johnny Stokes. Nobody had ever turned to look at Ellsworth Toohey.

From The Neurotic Personality of Our Time:

The quest for power is … a protection against helplessness and against insignificance…. The neurotic that falls in this group develops a stringent need to impress others, to be admired and respected…. Usually they have gone through a series of humiliating experiences in childhood…. Sometimes the ambition is not centered on a definite goal, but spreads over all a person's activities. He has to be the best in every field he comes in touch with.

From The Fountainhead descriptions of Gail Wynand:

One day he walked up to the pressroom boss and stated that they should start a new service—deliver the paper to the reader's door … he explained how and why it would increase circulation. "Yeah?" said the boss. "I know it will work," said Wynand. "Well, you don't run things around here," said the boss. "You're a fool," said Wynand. He lost the job. One day he explained to the grocer what a good idea it would be to put milk up in bottles … "You shut your trap and go wait on Mrs. Sullivan there," said the grocer, "don't you tell me nothing I don't know about my business. You don't run things around here."

The name of Gail Wynand's boat is I Do. The Neurotic Personality of Our Time describes Wynand's character:

Neurotic striving for power serves as a protection against the danger of feeling or being insignificant. The neurotic develops a rigid and irrational ideal of strength which makes him believe he should be able to master any situation. [I Do]…. He classifies people as either "strong" or "weak," admiring the former and despising the latter…. He has more or less contempt for all persons who agree with him or give in to his wishes.

In her chapter "The Meaning of Neurotic Suffering," Horney draws a solid portrait of Dominique Francon, the most interesting and unbearable character in The Fountainhead. Dominique's deliberate incurring of suffering accompanies "the realization of a growing discrepancy between potentialities and factual achievements"; Her suffering is "prompted by anxiety" and has "direct defense value against imminent dangers." Even stronger is Horney's suggestion that "having to realize a definite weakness or shortcoming of his own is unbearable for one who has such high-flown notions of his own uniqueness … abandoning oneself to excessive suffering may serve as an opiate against pain."

Dominique is in love with Howard Roark; she applauds his ideas. Yet she consistently tries to ruin him and thwart his projects. Through marriages to Peter Keating and Gail Wynand, she puts herself out of Roark's reach. Early in the novel she buys a beautiful statue, which she finds especially satisfying, but she flings it down an elevator shaft to smash it. These are all neurotic signs, but the reasons for them are more interesting than masochistic motives: they are explained by Horney. Dominique is afraid to believe that Howard Roark is as self-contained and dedicated as he seems, because such a person makes terrible demands on others; if she can find a flaw in him, she need not make an effort to be a complete individual. She also wants to take Roark out of a position where he can be hurt: i.e., if he is broken, if his ideals are gone and his work no longer his most important—and vulnerable—aspect, then the world cannot hurt him. By various experiences with men, she strives to humiliate herself in order to experience some of the pain she believes Roark is feeling. Sex for her is a degrading experience, a subduing one because carried on with inferior men.

Horney continues: "The obtaining of satisfaction by submersion in misery is an expression of the general principle of finding satisfaction by losing the self in something greater, by dissolving the individuality, by getting rid of the self with its doubts, conflicts, pains, limitations, and isolation." Roark will not have Dominique until she learns not to submerge herself, until she learns not to submit herself to something greater. He does not wish her to be Mrs. Howard Roark as much as he wants her to be Dominique first. The Fountainhead is a long account of the education of Dominique Francon.

As a foil for Dominique is Catherine Halsey, a tragic, beautifully drawn figure. She is what our society regards as the perfect social worker: a figure of utter altruism, of complete submersion in the lives of others. When she is first encountered in the novel, she is a delightful, open girl. After Peter Keating throws her over for Dominique, Catherine dedicates her life to serving others; in so doing, she impoverishes her whole personality, and becomes a bitter, prematurely old woman who worries about the bowels of her friends. Society, however, would applaud her dedication, failing to see that until she has a self of her own, she cannot possibly be of any value to others.

Howard Roark does not strictly speaking belong in a discussion of Ayn Rand's neurotic personalities, because he is not neurotic; he is, however, the touchstone for all the other characters in the novel and as such points up their particular neuroses. Roark needs no approval, acclaim, or admiration: whether he is liked is immaterial to him. He knows his work is good; no one needs to confirm the fact for him. He feels all the emotions except inferiority. While in social terms he is openly a failure, his inner calm and confidence belie the idea. Roark creates his own taste and follows none. In terms of fundamental values and ideals, his important decisions have already been made; he knows exactly what he wants to do, and for 754 pages of novel, expresses only his own selfish point of view. The potential hostility, retaliation of others do not affect him, nor does the prospect of success. And unlike a more typical romantic hero, he does not give up all for the woman he loves: his work and his integrity are more important.

The Fountainhead, chiefly through its characters, points up a number of paradoxes in our time and culture. There is first the paradox of the drive for competition and success on the one hand vs. the constant demand for brotherly love and humility on the other. On one side, the individual is spurred on to greater and greater heights of success, which means he must be assertive and aggressive, while on the other he is deeply imbued by the principle and ideal of unselfishness. A second paradox is that one's desires and needs are constantly kept stimulated, while the possibilities of fulfillment are slim or impossible. Through advertising, television, and films, the demand for conspicuous consumption keeps the desires pitched high. But for most the ability to realize this level is not commensurate with the wish, and there is a constant discrepancy between desire and achievement. The third paradox is that a gap exists between the alleged freedom of the individual and his actual limitations. One cannot choose his parents or his early environment, which limits his potential for meeting certain kinds of people. For the majority of people the possibilities are limited but not insurmountable. For the neurotic the conflicts are intensified, and as mentioned in regard to Keating, Toohey, and Wynand, a satisfactory solution is impossible.

The whole force of these paradoxes is to show that society as a whole is neurotic, in that its constitution encourages the neuroses found in The Fountainhead. If all society is faced with these paradoxes, and all the conflicts implied in them are essentially impossible to solve, then the Howard Roarks, the really well balanced and secure individuals, will be the ones considered neurotic by the society around them. Thus we end with a fourth paradox.

Source: Paul Deane, "Ayn Rand's Neurotic Personalities of Our Times," in Revue des langues vivantes, Vol. XXXVI, No. 2, 1970, pp. 125-29.

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