Fountainhead

The courtroom verdict at the Courtlandt trial had an immense impact on the lives of each main character in The Fountainhead. The revolutionary Roark is acquitted of the felony of destroying a public building. This verdict shakes the world of the evil Toohey, ultimately destroying him. It means the psychological destruction of Gail Wynand, a hard working businessman and friend of Roark's. It also brings on the collapse of the spineless Peter Keating, and it is the last event that lets Dominique fully accept Roark's philosophy and free herself of his negative ways.

Ellsworth Toohey is the embodiment of evil. His ambition is not only to physically own people but also to capture possession of their souls by breaking them down and in this way he gains power over them. He confesses to Peter that, "If you learn how to rule one single man's soul, you can get the rest of man kind. It's the soul Peter, not whips or swords or fire or guns…. it must be broken" (635). Toohey understands that the world is full of Peter Keatings', the ones that need reassurance and recognition from others. He made it very clear that he wanted power. “I want my world of the future. Let all sacrifice and none profit. Let all suffer and none enjoy. Let progress stop" (639). He also saw this progress in Roark's eye, in his soul and in his work and he despised him for it. He knew very well that great men can't be ruled and "Anything that can't be ruled must go" (638). That was the reason he had to destroy Roark. He believed that by praising the Keatings of the world and laughing at the Roarks, he would manipulate the public to condemn and destroy the only man that could save them from themselves. Ellsworth believed that he had succeeded and that he had the power because he ruled the public, but he did not. He found this out when the jury found Roark not guilty. For this verdict it meant that the world he had believed to have owned was ready to embrace Roark's philosophies and was ready for the things that Toohey hated the most: individualism and progress. Toohey had failed, Roark had won and this destroyed Toohey.

Gail Wynand, a rugged newspaper industrialist, had succeeded in becoming one of the wealthiest men of his time. He owned everything within his reach, but lacked the possession of his own soul. He sold this to the public and in return inherited power. He had created a paper containing things that the public wanted to hear. Wynand's destruction was due to his carelessness in maintaining his integrity. He puts everything that he has at risk to protect Roark and himself and he writes only things that defend Roark in The Banner. But after an unexpected cold reception of the new magazine, Wynand realizes that he has no power. But the last event was when Roark was found "not guilty". He realized that he had given up his integrity in order to gain what he thought was power, but in the end he did not have to. His whole life was pointless and he had become the man he did not want to become and could never be the man he dreamt of being.

Peter Keating flows through a transition of vanity, fame, lies, flattery and eventually guilt. He lacks self-respect and therefore people easily govern him. He envies Roark's talent and passion and for that he would ask him to design many of the buildings that he could not do. Roark says that "he's not really struggling even for material wealth, but for the second-hander's delusion- prestige, a stamp of approval, not his own. He can find no struggle, no joy when he has succeeded. He can't say about a single thing" This is what I wanted, because I wanted it, not because it made my neighbors gape at me" (607). It was this second-hander's delusion that lead to his eventual ruin. After the society that made him and supported him, abandons him, he runs to Roark and begs him to get him back in the public eye by designing the Cortlandt homes for him, but when Toohey forces him to revel the truth to the public during the trail, every ounce of dignity and self-respect that he still had was taken away from him. He was no longer important, he no longer would receive praise for Roark's work and it destroyed him.

Dominique Francon was a strong, powerful, highly intelligent, cold and radiantly beautiful woman that believed that good could never conquer evil and she simply hated everyone. She had never believed that