The Fountainhead

Gail Wynand invites Roark to his office at The Banner and tells him that he is the only architect whose work he truly admires. He commissions Roark to design a home that is perfectly his own. He wants it to be a temple to his wife, Dominique. Wynand says that he won’t publicize the house. This is fine with Roark, who stipulates that Wynand mustn’t try to alter his design of the house at all. They agree, and Wynand realizes that for the first time, he has been speaking to another person without putting up a façade.

Meanwhile, Alvah Scarret informs Ellsworth Toohey of Roark’s presence in Wynand’s office, which Toohey predicts will result in all kinds of fireworks between the two men. Scarret is concerned that Wynand has been interfering with the paper by criticizing its more low-brow articles, and he hopes that Wynand will find his endeavor of breaking Roark’s integrity to be cathartic enough to settle him. Meanwhile, Wynand reads The Banner’s entire archive on the Stoddard Temple and Roark.

Wynand takes Roark to the proposed site of his new home, and they bond over their similar childhoods and upbringing. Throughout his life, Wynand reacted to the incompetence he observed around him by deciding to rule over the incompetents, whereas Roark was determined to do his work well despite them. Wynand apologizes in a roundabout manner for his paper’s part in the Stoddard Temple scandal, and Roark tells him that he will have to give himself absolution since Roark has nothing to forgive. They feel an immediate, intimate bond of understanding and fellow feeling and confess that they are already making each other the exceptions to their usual habits and attitudes. Wynand tells Roark not to contact him until his sketches are complete.

A month later, Roark returns to Wynand with the sketches, and Wynand tells Roark that he’ll let him build the house, but only on the condition that Roark will sign a contract to become Wynand’s exclusive architect, after which he will be bound to build the most basic and common buildings to please the public’s taste. Wynand’s face expresses a kind of sensual pleasure and agony as he threatens to ruin Roark so thoroughly that he’ll never be able to work in the industry—not even in a quarry—again if he refuses. Roark agrees easily and sketches out a house that is a mishmash of traditional styles and that would delight the architectural establishment. This immediately evokes a response of visceral horror in Wynand, who capitulates immediately, knowing that Roark would never give in and that he himself wouldn’t manage to hold out. He berates Roark for taking the risk of agreeing, but Roark says that he knew he had an ally in Wynand’s own integrity. Wynand isn’t happy to be defeated, but he adores Roark’s true design for his house.

Dominique learns that Wynand has chosen Roark to design and build their home and that Wynand has invited Roark to dinner. They greet each other cordially, and Dominique observes the two men as they bond over their shared concepts of ownership. Wynand visits Roark at his office and learns that Roark has been reading The Banner out of curiosity. Wynand compares Roark’s innocence to a stray kitten he once adopted in his youth and takes him out to dinner. He then hangs a framed picture of Roark in his office and forbids Toohey from writing about him.

Wynand and Roark spend a significant amount of time together as their friendship deepens. They relax together in Roark’s apartment at the Enright house, and Roark is a frequent guest in Wynand’s penthouse. Dominique allows them their time alone together as a method of self-flagellation and as a test of her willpower, and Wynand admits to her that he is obsessed with Roark. Wynand visits the construction site of his new home and adores it. He has a new enthusiasm for work in general, but he has no desire to devote energy to The Banner and feels pained whenever he thinks of Roark and his work at the same time.

Toohey pontificates loudly at a party, gaining approval from its attendees for his promotion of altruism and denial of the ego. The approval of Mitchell Layton is particularly effusive because he has inherited a fortune and feels bad about it. Toohey is eloquent and florid in his speech, and his listeners all hasten to agree with his points: that freedom is bad, mysticism good, and unselfishness the best of all virtues. In all the arts, Toohey’s friends and disciples are considered masters despite their universal mediocrity, which pleases Toohey immensely. He encourages Gus Webb’s “We Don’t Read Wynand” movement in opposition to the Wynand press.

Peter Keating’s career is in sharp decline, and as he becomes increasingly miserable in his personal life, he also develops an addiction to alcohol. His mother has moved back in with him and tries to console him, lamenting that if he isn’t happy, then all their work was for nothing. He seeks out Toohey, who has been drifting away from him and supporting his competitors, Gus Webb and Gordon Prescott, instead. Keating asks Toohey to recommend him for the Cordtland Homes contract to design and built low-rent apartments for a government housing project. Toohey tells him that it is crucial that the designs prioritize economy and states that no other designers have been able to meet the requirements. Toohey strongly implies that he’ll get the contract for Keating if Keating manages to plagiarize Roark’s designs as he used to. Toohey then delivers a monologue on the importance of manipulating the social environment to discourage outstanding individuals, rather than trying to destroy them one by one.

Keating begs Roark to help him design the Cordtland Homes project. Roark agrees because he wishes to see his ideas used for large-scale economical housing. He stipulates that Keating must follow his designs exactly, with no deviations. Keating, fully aware of the difficulties involved in fulfilling such a promise, nonetheless signs a contract agreeing to Roark’s conditions. Keating honestly and humbly acknowledges Roark’s superiority. He also shows Roark a mediocre painting that he recently made in a futile attempt to recapture his youthful passion for art. Roark tells Keating that the painting is too little too late. For the first time in his life, Roark feels terrible pity, and he finds himself horrified to realize that society considers such an emotion to be a virtue.

Roark completes his designs for Cortlandt Homes, earning Keating the contract via a delighted Toohey. The construction of Wynand’s home is also completed, and it is the perfect tribute to Dominique. Roark is the only guest allowed at the house, and the three of them become even more closely entwined as they spend much of their free time there together. Wynand feels reinvigorated with a desire to work and create, but he has lost all taste for The Banner and its vulgar style, save as a means to promote Roark’s career. Heller warns Roark that Wynand’s public approbation is harming Roark’s career, but although Roark agrees, he doesn’t mind and refuses to rebuke Wynand. Wynand shows Roark the plot of land where he was born and explains that he now owns it and has always planned to build the Wynand Building skyscraper there as a tribute to his life and success. Roark is eager to undertake the promised job.

Keating crosses paths with Catherine while walking through the city. This is their first meeting since he jilted her. She is in the city for work because she now has a very important job in Washington, but she agrees to spare an hour to catch up over a cup of tea. Catherine is distantly pleasant toward him and speaks of their relationship briskly and without pain as something entirely of the past, casually belittling its significance. Keating is hurt by this and apologizes for his prior cruelty, confessing that he did love her sincerely. She is unmoved, and when prompted, she describes the extent of her anguish and suffering at Keating’s abandonment with clinical detachment and disapproval, as though she were speaking of someone else. She orders food for Keating as well as herself, berating him for his recent weight gain. As she talks obsessively about work and social issues, she parrots the words of her uncle, Ellsworth Toohey, and other socialist reformers. They part ways without ceremony, and Keating knows that even the pain of their relationship is dead to her.