Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Fountainhead, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Individualism
Integrity vs. Conformity
Rationality vs. Emotion
Love and Selfishness
Religion and Morality
Summary
Analysis
Ike reads his play aloud to the Council of American Writers and his listeners—who include Lois Cook, Lancelot Clokey, and Toohey—agree that it is awful. Jules Fougler, the drama critic at the Banner, chimes in, saying that it is, in fact, “a great play.” Lancelot asks him why, and Fougler says, “Because I say so.” He says a critic achieves nothing by praising a good play, whereas to “impress [his] own personality upon people,” he can convince people that a worthless play is good. Cook says Toohey did the same thing with The Gallant Gallstone, which she admits is a “piece of trash.”
Fougler seeks power over his readers, and the most satisfying way for him to achieve this is by insisting something terrible is great and to watch the public eagerly agree with him. Most people lack the strength to stand by their opinions (if they have any, that is) and will defer to a critic’s claims.
Themes
Toohey explains that by praising the unexceptional—like “a total nonentity who’s done nothing more than eating, sleeping, and chatting with neighbors”—then, the “fact that one has built a cathedral becomes” irrelevant. He tells Ike that if he were to tell people Ike’s plays are as good as Ibsen’s, then “pretty soon they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”
Toohey wants to elevate the common and the mediocre in order to distract people from the excellence of truly exceptional work—to most, these two kinds of works will now be on the same plane since they both elicit similar reactions.
Themes
Just then, Keating shows up. Everyone tells him that Ike’s new play is a masterpiece and that he is sure to love it. Fougler says he hopes Keating will prove to be worthy of the play since it is not for anyone “with a dry soul and a limited imagination.” Keating looks at them eagerly, feeling they all float above him and are looking down at him benevolently.
The Council of American Writers decides to use Keating as a guinea pig to try out the claim that Ike’s play is excellent. Keating, of course, is eager to agree with them, and doesn’t want to be seen as someone who isn’t creative enough to appreciate the play.
Themes
Some days later, Toohey declares support for modern architecture in “One Small Voice.” He writes that the best example of this style is a building designed for a brush company by Gus Webb. Keating is hurt that Toohey picked Gus Webb as an example when Keating, too, has designed many modern buildings. Toohey says he has done well by Keating and can now give someone else a chance.
Toohey’s allegiance seems to have shifted from the more traditional-minded architects like Francon and Keating to modernists like Webb. When Keating asks him about it, Toohey says he now wants to give someone else a chance, since he has already done so much for Keating.
Themes
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Whenever anyone congratulates Keating on Stoneridge, he is unable to feel the old pleasure he got from interactions like these. He leaves the designing to his employees. Meanwhile, after he hears the news of Dominique getting a divorce, Francon decides to retire, leaving the firm to Keating. Keating chooses Dumont as partner and does not attend the celebration that follows.
While Keating is becoming increasingly successful in the world’s opinion by constantly behaving in a way that compromises his self-respect, Keating is losing his pleasure in his supposed triumphs.
Themes
