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
While Roark has never hated anyone, Wynand is the person who has come closest to inspiring his hatred. However, the two of them immediately feel a connection when they meet. Wynand says he has never built anything for himself, and Roark says this is probably because he has been unhappy and “because his life has not been what he wanted.” Wynand agrees and says he is happy now and wants Roark to build his home in Connecticut. Roark wants to know if Dominique recommended him for the job, but Wynand says she knows nothing about it. He had decided on Roark after seeing Monadnock and other buildings Roark had designed. He says he very much admires Roark’s work, and surprisingly, meeting him has not been an anticlimax since he likes talking to him.
Roark is ready to hate Wynand, expecting him to be like the living version of the Banner. Cameron, too, has spoken to Roark about the Banner encouraging people’s base urges like pettiness and vapidity, and has held Wynand responsible for destroying integrity and excellence. However, when Roark meets him, he feels an instant connection with him, perhaps sensing Wynand’s potential for greatness. Roark understands him immediately, knowing that Wynand has been unhappy for much of his life but has found happiness now.
Themes
Wynand tells Roark that he wants the house he designs for him to have that “Roark quality” of “a difficult, demanding kind of joy” that makes one think “I’m a better person if I can feel that.” He tells Roark that Roark looks almost disappointed that Wynand sees these things in his buildings, and asks him not to hold his past buildings and the Wynand papers against him since they were simply the means to an end, with the end being the home that will be designed by Roark. Roark says he is “helpless against anyone who sees what [Wynand] saw in [his] buildings,” and that he is not used to feeling helpless.
Just like Roark immediately understands the core of Wynand’s self, Wynand, too, grasps the heart of Roark’s design principles.
Themes
Wynand tells Roark that he wants the house because he is “very desperately in love” with his wife. He says he wants to “put her out of reach—where nothing can touch her.” The house must be a “treasury—a vault to guard things too precious for sight.” Roark struggles to hear these things but doesn’t show it. Wynand wants the house to be “so beautiful” that he and Dominique won’t miss the outside world. He thinks of it as a “temple to Dominique Wynand,” and says Roark must meet her before he designs it. Roark says he has met her years before. Wynand says they can go see the site together the following morning and Roark agrees. After he leaves, Wynand asks his secretary to send him all the information the paper has on Roark.
Just like Wynand keeps his precious art collection locked away from the eyes of the undeserving world, he wants to keep Dominique out of reach, too. Roark struggles to see how much Wynand loves Dominique, but being the strong person he is, he doesn’t let his emotions show or get in the way of his work.
Themes
When Toohey hears from Scarret that Roark has been in to see Wynand, he bursts out laughing, saying the “worst wars are religious wars between sects of the same religion or civil wars between brothers of the same race.” Scarret complains to Toohey that Wynand is “losing his grip,” just as Toohey had predicted he would after marrying Dominique. Wynand criticized Scarret’s editorial and threw Fougler’s article into the trash. Scarret says it isn’t surprising that Wynand “hasn’t got a friend left in the place.”
Toohey recognizes that both Wynand and Roark are individualists with a strong sense of self-respect, so he is confident that they will destroy each other. Scarret is right in thinking that Dominique’s influence has changed the way the Wynand is running the Banner—he now seems to have higher standards for what they will publish. This seems to be making him unpopular among his staff, many of whom, like Fougler, Toohey has appointed himself.
Themes
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In the meantime, Wynand receives a folder full of news articles on Roark, and is surprised to see that he was the architect in the Stoddard trial. He reads everything they have on Roark.
Since Wynand was away on vacation when the Stoddard trial took place, he has no idea that Roark was at the center of it. After getting all the information the Banner has on Roark, Wynand realizes that his newspaper played a big role in ruining Roark’s career.
Themes
