The cast of characters in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead showcases a myriad of
extreme personalities and complex characters. In few literary works will one
find characters so three-dimensional. The majority of these characters have
depths that shadow those of most actual people. The two main characters are
antagonist Ellsworth Monkton Toohey, a detestable and manipulative journalist
and protagonist Howard Roark, a talented yet ostracized architect.
What can one say about Ellsworth Monkton Toohey? This man is not fit to be the sozzle scraped from beneath Howard Roark's shoe. He is a tiny, rat-like man, with an unctuous personality. Toohey is barely fit to be the industrial waste
from one of Roark's construction sites, yet he is one of the most prestigious
men in The Fountainhead's New York City. He lives to manipulate, playing with
people like pawns and using his newspaper column to do so. Toohey achieves
great joy from the devious management of the rest of society. No one realizes
they have fallen for the tricks of Ellsworth Toohey until it is too late.
Everyone reveres him because he has a prominent position on every board or
council, yet has no official titles. He sits strangling the aorta of every
person in the city, yet leaves no traces. Everyone thinks he is the most
wonderful "humanitarian" of all time. It is true. Ellsworth M. Toohey is a
great humanitarian metaphorically, if one remembers that vegetarians eat
vegetables.
He does not play quite the sheep, as does Peter Keating, an architect who only
measures his success by the opinions of others. Toohey is more the wolf and the shepherd combined. He leads the �Peter Keatings� of the world around in
circles, all the while preparing for the kill. Toohey exists almost beyond the
rest of the characters, on the outside looking in. He is in their world but
does not feel the negative effects of it. He molds the personalities and
lifestyles of the people around him, every move expertly calculated to his own
advantage, and then watches from the shadows with silent laughter as the
carnage unfolds.
The only man capable of surviving Toohey�s wrath with any resemblance of self
intact is Howard Roark. He is not only an architect by profession, but in every
aspect of being. He embodies Rand�s own philosophy on life, �My philosophy, in
essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the
moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity,
and reason as his only absolute� (Atlas Appendix). Roark lives for his work,
and this suits him well. He is a tall, thin man with an enticing head of
startling fire-orange hair. Rand describes Roark's looks as "not in the least
attractive according to conventional standards (Fountainhead 697)" however his
mysterious yet forward personality makes him radiate appeal. Nothing seems
appropriate near him, not clothes nor people. His buildings are the only things
that scream "Roark." They are unlike any the world has ever seen. They seem to spring from the earth, like crystalline palaces. Very few people like them, or
even like Roark for that matter, but those who do, do so religiously. The
structures he designs speak of his soul, his most valuable possession.
He is an egotist, but not in the widely excepted meaning of the word. He lives
for himself and his passions, architecture, self-preservation, and Dominique.
Dominique Francon is an immensely beautiful woman with whom Roark is involved.
She has never once lied to herself yet lies to everyone else. Her genuine love
for Roark stemmed from physical attraction (partially created from what can be
seen as a rape) and blossomed into all out obsession. She loves him so much
that she feels the need to hide him from the world. Dominique sabotages his
career to keep the pieces of him (his buildings) out of the public eye. Roark
does not live for Dominique for her sake or to preserve her. He lives for her
in the sense that she makes him happy in ways no one else can. He values her to preserve his own happiness. The multitude of society thinks him inhuman,
however he is truly the most human of us all. Howard Roark is not a mirror,
reflecting the wishes of society. He is his own person, and not afraid to let
others know it. He does not lie to himself and others by believing, or letting
them believe, that what they think matters to him. Roark speaks his mind
whenever it pleases him to. Biting his tongue is never an option. He shows no
fear, inhibition, remorse, or pride to the general public. Those closest to
him, Dominique, Mike, and Gail Wynand, may see some emotion, but only when
absolutely necessary, and only when it seems most natural. He only feels it
essential to prove things to himself, and no one else. He never compromises, to
the point of loosing jobs over creative control disputes. Roark's ideas are his
only in their original and unmarred form. As soon as Keating and his team added
their 'personal touches' to his Cortlandt building design it was no longer his.
He blew it up. It meant nothing to him wrapped in this perversely decadent and
foreign skin. It became a statement of his worst nightmare, the obliteration of
the single soul. This building had been an entity unparalleled by any other
building. Then it was collectivized and its purpose lost. Cortlandt became just
another building in the sea of this useless homogeneous society of which he was
not a part. He had no desire to become part of the whole, so he eliminated the
building entirely. How can one not admire the personal strength it takes to
uphold such a life style? Howard Roark never compromises his morals for the so-
called greater good. He lives his life with his own values intact, whether this
means living in the streets or a studio apartment in New York City.
Ellsworth Toohey tries to spite Roark in every way throughout the course of The
Fountainhead. He leaves Roark's name out of the papers with the philosophy that
even bad press puts Roark in the minds of the people. When that stops working
Toohey blackens Roark's name at every opportunity. He convinces Dominique to
become Mrs. Peter Keating, knowing this will be the emotional equivalent of a
sucking chest wound. But why does Toohey do these things? It is simple, Roark's
very being could be the end of Toohey. If others started to open their eyes, to
open their minds to the way Roark thinks, they would become independent. If
that happened there would be a coup in the zoo and Toohey would lose his
position as keeper. Even worse in Toohey's eyes would be if they found him out.
If the little people discovered that he had been manipulating them for years.
No newspaper in the world could save him.
In the end it all comes down to good vs. evil. Ayn Rand uses the characters of
Roark and Toohey as metaphors for the eternal struggle. Roark represents all
things pure and good. He represents the human spirit. Toohey represents the
evil that is created when we as human beings lose ourselves in the collectivism
of society. Society can not survive without the Roarks and the Tooheys. Society
can not survive without the Peter Keatings to serve as the sheep for the
Tooheys to lead around and that the Roarks must break away from.