The Fountainhead: Part 3: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

When Dominique returns earlier than expected, Keating wants to know whether that means he won’t get Stoneridge. Dominique tells him that he will, and that Wynand will meet him that night and explain everything. Keating snaps at her that she and Wynand are behaving like “truck drivers” with no decency, but that he refuses to be hurt by them. That night, Wynand tells him that he will be marrying Dominique and that she is leaving for Reno that night. He gives Keating the signed papers for Stoneridge and an extra $250,000. Keating accepts all of it, and then goes and gets drunk with some acquaintances. 

Dominique goes to see Steven Mallory, who tells her Roark is in Clayton, Ohio, working on a department store. Mallory also tells Dominique that Wynand bought many of his sculptures and that Mallory has enough money now. The next morning, Dominique leaves for Reno.

The next day, Keating feels he has to go meet Toohey and heads to his apartment “like the survivor of a shipwreck swimming to a distant light.” Toohey is busy working and makes him wait until he finishes. Then, he makes a phone call to Gus Webb. When Toohey finally turns to Keating, he gives him the check Wynand had given him and tells him to use the money for a good cause. Keating then tells Toohey he is the only friend he has, and that he’d “sold Dominique,” who has gone to Reno. Toohey is immediately furious, saying Keating shouldn’t have allowed it.

Later, Toohey tells Alvah Scarret that they both wouldn’t want “that particular influence [to] enter the life of [their] boss.” He suggests that they stick together, and Scarret agrees. Scarret sees Wynand, who declares that there will be no pictures of Dominique or their wedding in the Banner.

On her way to Reno, Dominique stops at Clayton, Ohio, to see Roark. She walks from the train station to the building site and feels faint when she finds him. She tells him that he is taking on such small projects that it feels like the quarry again. He says she could think of it that way, though it isn’t really. She says it is a fall after the important buildings he’d done, and he says he loves doing it, that “Every building is like a person. Single and unrepeatable.”

Dominique tells Roark that she is marrying Gail Wynand. Roark looks shocked, saying that’s even worse than Keating. Dominique agrees. One of the workers calls Roark to consult with him, and Dominique watches them discussing work. When he comes back, she tells him that they can stay in this town forever, if only he promises to give up architecture. She says she can’t bear to see his passion for his work because it will end in some “terrible kind of disaster” and that he should therefore give it up. Roark says that, if he were a cruel person, he’d accept her offer “just to see how soon [she’d] beg [him] to go back to building.” He says she needs to “stop hating [the world], learn not to notice it.” He then walks her to the station and she boards a train for Reno.