GradeSaver: The Fountainhead

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GradeSaver(tm) ClassicNotes The Fountainhead

Summary and Analysis of Part IV, Chapters 1-5

Chapter 1

A young boy who has just graduated from college is cycling though the countryside. He is thinking worredly about his future, for at school he learned many things about the importance of self-sacrifice and working towards a common goal, but he did not find these things very inspiring. Suddenly he comes upon a valley, and looking down, he sees a town spread out, but it is like no town he has ever seen. It is as beautiful as a symphony. A man approaches, and he explains to the boy that it is a summer resort that is about to open. The boy thanks him and rides away, suddenly full of "the courage to face a lifetime."

Roark does not understand how he had gotten to build this summer resort. In the fall of 1933 he had received a call from Mr. Caleb Bradley. As soon as Roark saw him he thought he would never get a job from this man. Then Bradley invited him to make a presentation to the Board. Roark did so, and again he thought there was no way they would accept it. He told them that Monadnock Valley should be a summer resort of private homes for the middle class. It should have many private swimming pools, tennis courts, and secluded houses. He told them he could do this very cheaply and that there was nothing else like it available. They approved the project. Roark remembered the Stoddard Temple and made Bradley initial every drawing he finished. Roark worked for eighteen months, rehiring his old draftsmen, joined by Mike and Stephen Mallory. None of them noticed the discomfort of their working conditions; they only thought about the job to be done. When Bradley came to visit the site, Mallory grew afraid. He told Roark, "it's the Stoddard Temple, again" and Roark agreed, but he said they could not worry about it.

Just as Roark finishes this job, he receives word from Kent Lansing that they could finally finish the Aquitania. He leaves for New York immediately. Despite a lack of advertisements, every house is rented for that summer, and by October it is fully booked for the next year. One day Mallory rushes into Roark's office and explains that the whole thing was a scheme. The Board sold 200% of the shares and found the worst architect they could so that there would be no profits to divide among the shareholders. Now they are ruined, because they have made so much money. Mallory is furious, but Roark is amused. Mallory continues to shout about how this scheme could only exist in this twisted world, until finally Roark shouts, "When will you stop thinking about that? About the world and me? ... When will Dominique?" They never speak about Dominique, and Mallory, helpless, asks when Roark will stop thinking about her. Roark tells him to be quiet.

The Monadnock Valley scheme results in a scandal, and several jail sentences are handed down. Austen Heller writes an editorial about "greatness [reaching] us through fraud." Suddenly Roark is famous, even if only one-tenth of the people talking about him understand his work. Ellsworth Toohey writes an article damning him and claiming that the orchestrators of the fraud should be pardoned for their recognition of Roark as the worst possible architect. Despite this, Roark continues to get work. In 1936 Roark is invited to be one of eight architects to design the buildings for a World's Fair. He tells them that he would happily design the fair alone, but that he does not collaborate. They are flabbergasted, and he rejects their proposition. Peter Keating is appointed the head of the group of architects who will design the fair. Roark moves into an office at the top of the Cord Building, where he can see his other buildings from the windows. One day he walks into his office, and his secretary tells him excitedly that Wynand wants to see him tomorrow at 3:00 pm.

Chapter 2

Roark arrives at the office of the Banner; it looks "as if everything in that building were run by ... control boards in the hands of an authority aware of every motion." Wynand notices the time and remembers he has an appointment with an architect in a few moments. As he waits, he thinks happily of the row of buttons on the side of his desk that directly or indirectly control the workings of the entire building. When Roark walks into Wynand's office, each man loses his sense of reality for a moment, conscious only of this other man. Completely unintentionally, Wynand tells Roark that he does not think he would want to work for him; Roark immediately replies that he does. Wynand tells him this is the first thing he has ever built for himself. Roark comments that that is because he is unhappy, and he explains that Wynand is unhappy because "his life has not been what he wanted." Wynand acknowledges that this is true. He has never spoken like this to another human being.

Wynand explains that he wants Roark to build him a house in the country. He tells Roark about his wife, and Roark says only that he met her once. He explains that he picked Roark by walking around the city and asking who designed buildings that he liked. They had all been designed by Roark. He tells him that he wants a house that is like a prison, but not quite a prison. He wants it to be so perfect and luxurious that Dominique will never want to leave it, because he is "desperately in love" with her. Wynand offers to drive him to see the site tomorrow. He wants the house by summer, and he will pay whatever it takes. Roark agrees to the commission and explains that his only condition is that once Wynand agrees to the drawings no changes can be made. Wynand immediately agrees. Wynand's conditions are that there be no publicity and Roark not release any pictures to the press--he promises that the Banner will be his personal publicity machine otherwise. Roark tells him he does not want any publicity anyway, which Wynand finds amusing. When Roark is gone Wynand realizes that "for the first time in his life he had spoken to a man without feeling the reluctance, the sense of pressure, the need of disguise he had always experienced when he spoke to people." He asks his secretary to have all the information they have on Roark sent to his office.

Alvah Scarret interrupts Ellsworth Toohey at work, who tries to brush him off. But Scarret is insistent and when Toohey listens, he tells him that Roark was just in Wynand's office. Looking surprised, Toohey laughs, and he admits he did not know. Scarret wonders if it will be embarrassing to Toohey if Wynand hires Roark to do a building, but then he admits that he actually thinks it is a good thing. He tells Toohey that he thinks Roark might be another Dwight Carson--Wynand might be restored to his old self if he successfully destroys Howard Roark. When Scarret is finally done going on about Wynand and Roark, Toohey comments that it really does not matter, because Gail Wynand is no longer completely in charge of the Banner.

When a boy brings the clippings up to Wynand, he is surprised to see so many, and the boy explains that "it's the Stoddard trial." Then, Wynand remembers. He reads through every single clipping, cuts out the picture of Roark in front of the Enright building, and then sits for a long time, listening to the hum of the printers spitting out the next edition of the Banner.

Chapter 3

Roark and Wynand are at Wynand's site. For a moment Roark and Wynand discuss the site, then Wynand falls silent while Roark looks around. Finally, Wynand asks Roark why he would work for him after the Stoddard Temple affair. Wynand reminds Roark what they called him. Defiantly Wynand explains that he "stands by every one of those descriptive terms. [He stands] by every word printed in the Banner." Roark explains that he "can't pretend an anger [he doesn't] feel." Roark goes on to explain that Wynand does not know what to do, because "it hurts [him] to know that [he's] made [Roark] suffer. [He wishes he] hadn't. And yet there's something that frightens [him] more. The knowledge that [Roark] hasn't suffered at all." Roark and Wynand continue to speak in this manner, and when they are done, Roark has insisted that they speak no more of the Stoddard Temple.

Wynand asks Roark about his childhood, unsurprised that it is very similar to his own. The only difference that Wynand discovers is that Roark did not "drive the anger back inside of [himself], and store it, and decide to let [himself] be torn to pieces if necessary, but reach the day when [he'd] rule those people and all people and everything around [him]." Roark continues to press, telling Wynand he wants to help him get past the Stoddard Temple, and Wynand seems to reach his breaking point. He says he needs to get back to the city, and when they drive back he goes about "ninety miles an hour." He tells Roark to go back to the site whenever he wants and that he can get all the information he needs from Wynand's office. He says not to try to reach him again until the "first drawings are ready."

A month later the drawings are done, and Roark calls Wynand. His secretary makes an appointment for Roark to bring the drawings to Wynand, who is impressed by the drawings and says he wants "to make a special deal" with him. He goes on to tell Roark that he will build this house exactly as he designed it, and then he will be put in charge of every building that Wynand builds in the country. He reminds Roark that if Wynand exerts himself, Roark will never build another thing in the entire country.

Wynand then explains that when Roark works for him, he will "design ... commercial structures--as the public wishes commercial structures to be designed. You'll build Colonial houses, Rococo hotels and semi-Grecian office buildings. You'll exercise your matchless ingenuity within forms chosen by the taste of the people." Roark replies that he is happy to accept, then takes a piece of letterhead and re-sketches Wynand's house "with Colonial porches, a gemrel roof, two massive chimneys, a few little pilasters, a few porthole windows. It was not a parody, it was a serious job of adaptation in what any professor would have called excellent taste." Wynand responds with horror, and Roark tells him to "shut up" and not try giving him any more "architectural suggestions." Wynand begins to laugh, but he does not sound happy. Suddenly calling him Howard again, Wynand tells Roark that he had really meant to go through with it. Roark says that he knows it, but that he knew he could trust Gail's integrity. Gail responds doubtfully, but Roark is steadfast. At the end of their conversation, Wynand asks Roark to have dinner with him and his wife that evening. Roark says he will come.

Chapter 4

When Wynand arrives home that night, Dominique, who is standing by the window, turns to look at him. She comments that he looks nearly happy; he explains that he feels "thirty years light," because of meeting a man. Without explaining, he tells Dominique how happy he is about their marriage. He tells her he has a present for her that will be finished by the end of the summer: their house. He shows her the drawings, and the second she sees them she knows they are Roark's. For a moment she feels violated, as if Wynand has caught her in bed with Roark. Wynand can tell she likes them, but he is oddly concerned with the fact that Dominique seems to have hated him. He mentions her defense of him at the Stoddard Trial and the fact that she posed for the statue. She tells Wynand that she does not hate Roark. Gail explains that Roark is coming for dinner, and after a moment she recovers from the shock and goes to dress.

Sitting across from Roark at the table, Dominique feels as if this moment, this setting, had been inevitable. They speak as if they are barely acquaintances. Wynand begins to speak about how it is "strange" that he, the most "offensively possessive man on earth," does not really mind that this house will always in some way be Roark's. Roark counters him by explaining that anything someone responds to the way that Wynand responds to Roark's houses belongs to that person. That ownership does not interfere with anyone else's, because it is a personal affirmation. Wynand likes this; he likes the idea that he owns Roark's other buildings as well. Dominique comments that Wynand owns the Stoddard Temple as well, and Roark gently reminds Gail to forget it. Wynand and Roark continue their discussion of ownership, but Dominique cannot stop thinking about the fact that Roark is so close to her, yet acting almost as if she does not exist. Underneath her appearance, she is almost hysterical.

Dominique does not know how she gets through dinner. Afterwards, they continue to discuss the new house, and Dominique feels like it is impossible that she will ever live there. When Roark leaves, she comments that he reminds her of Dwight Carson, and Wynand tells her to "forget Dwight Carson." Five days later, Wynand shows up at Roark's office without an appointment. Roark immediately invites him in. Wynand explains that there is no reason for his visit--he just felt like seeing Roark. Once again Wynand talks about his past and asks Roark about his, and once again there are small, important differences. Wynand tells him that he has been thinking a lot about his past since he met him, that he likes to think that "[they] started in the same way." He notices a copy of the Banner, and he is surprised to learn that Roark has been reading it for the last month out of curiosity. They talk about Roark's rejection of the World's Fair committee, and Wynand complains about having to give those kinds of people free advertising space.

Wynand tells Roark about a kitten he had when he was just starting to work on the Gazette. That kitten would make him feel much better, because it was "clean and free." He laughs because he is comparing Roark to a kitten. Roark agrees to join him for dinner, and Wynand calls Dominique to tell her he will not be home. Dominique has spent the last five days waiting and fighting her desire to go to him. She knows that she has to wait until he comes to her. The next day Wynand calls Toohey into his office and tells him that he is never to mention Roark in his column again. Toohey agrees, but not deferentially, commenting that he does not need "to write about Mr. Roark at present."

Chapter 5

As Wynand looks over a proof copy of the Banner, he thinks of Roark. Thinking of Roark makes it easier to deal with the sickliness of the stories, the meaninglessness of the advertisements, but he knows that it is easier "because it hurts so much." Later, after Roark has again dined with Dominique and Wynand, the men sit alone in Wynand's study. Wynand talks about how Roark's existence is a joke on everyone else. Over the next weeks Wynand and Roark spend a lot of time together. Wynand stops by Roark's office, he invites him to lunch, and he has him to his and Dominique's home for dinner. Sometimes they visit the site. One day Wynand drives out to the site alone. He thinks about the fact that he is happy with his life. He notices that it is almost spring. He sees Roark standing in the unfinished house, and he decides that Roark should always stand in just this way. Later they speak, and Wynand asks Roark if he has ever been in love. Roark replies that he still is. Wynand begins to talk about how it is a lie that "happiness is impossible on earth," a terrible lie. Roark responds by tearing a branch off of a tree and telling Wynand that making something out of that branch is "the meaning of life."

Dominique's entire being revolves around "remain[ing] controlled ... be[ing] patient." She realizes that Roark is helping her to understand Wynand. She accepts the fact that right now Roark belongs to Wynand more than he belongs to her. She accepts his presence in their lives, but she also knows that this is the hardest things Roark could ever have asked her to do. She does not see Roark alone, and she does not visit the incomplete house. Wynand asks her to forgive him this "obsession," explaining that knowing Roark, he somehow loves her more. Dominique asks him what Roark is to him, "in the nature of a shrine?"--but Wynand replies, "In the nature of a hair shirt."

Analysis

Gail Wynand is one of the only characters, perhaps the only one, who ever disturbs Howard Roark's composure. He is the only person Roark has ever come close to hating. His strong feelings are certainly understandable; the Banner represents the forces that destroyed Henry Cameron and that are trying to destroy Roark. But it seems clear that Roark's disturbance tells the reader more about Wynand's character than about Roark's, because Wynand is not the kind of man who Roark can be angry with. Roark discovers just as Dominique did that it is hard to reconcile Wynand with the contents of the Banner. He discovers another ally in the unlikeliest of places.

When Wynand makes a half-hearted attempt to destroy Roark, for a moment he seems more like the image of himself. His insistence that he is not happy that Roark held out suggests he is clinging to the part of him that created the Banner; he is not entirely ready to let that part of himself go. Roark defeats him, because Roark is the first person Wynand has ever met who can see the other part of him, the part that wants nothing to do with the Banner or with men like Toohey. The men who Wynand destroyed in the past may well have been good, true men. They may have had impeccable integrity. None of them could look at Wynand and see anything but the mask that created the Banner.

Wynand's continued references to his past, and the comparisons he makes between his and Roark's childhoods, provide a possible explanation for Rand's decision to include detailed descriptions of Wynand's and Toohey's childhoods but not of Roark's. Both Toohey and Wynand had a capacity for greatness apparent since childhood. Wynand, like Roark, worked hard from a very young age. He took pleasure in work, and when he decided what he would do with his life, he saw it in terms of a great and long labor with a tremendous reward. In contrast, Toohey hid from work behind his intellectual gifts. His first job involved directing others toward work but never doing any real work himself. Neither Toohey nor Wynand seems to have grown past the maturity level of himself as a child. It is unnecessary for the reader to learn about Roark's childhood; whatever he did and whatever he was will be part of the wholeness of his character. But Toohey and Wynand are not wholes; Toohey is hollow and Wynand is fractured. Revealing details about their respective childhoods underscores the idea that only good foundations can lead to great things.

The Fountainhead is a book of triangles. Consider Peter Keating, Dominique Francon, and Ellsworth Toohey, for example. Or Keating, Dominique, and Catherine Halsey. Or Roark, Wynand, and Toohey. The most important triangle consists of Howard Roark, Dominique Francon, and Gail Wynand. Roark desperately wants both Dominique and Wynand to understand what he understands that allows him to both live in the world and live apart from it. Dominique recognizes that the three of them belong together, for in their present situation, these times are the happiest that can exist for all of them. Despite Dominique's torment, she knows that her endurance is a gift of love, not only for Roark, but for Wynand as well. By allowing this triangle to exist, Dominique pays for her marriage. She earns Wynand's unconscious forgiveness by giving him this gift.

Furthermore, this triangle gives Dominique a chance to understand things about Wynand she could never understand when they were alone. By seeing him with Roark, she hopes to be able to name the thing that she and Wynand have in common. It should already be clear to the reader that when Dominique understands how she and Wynand are alike, she will be able to live as Roark wants her to live. When Dominique understands Wynand, perhaps even when she can love him, Dominique will finally be able to leave him.

ClassicNote on The Fountainhead

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