The Fountainhead: Part 4: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

Dominique wakes up in Wynand’s penthouse, where she has been brought after many days in the hospital. Wynand is standing and watching her. He says the police believe her story, but that she should handle broken glass with care. He also says he doesn’t understand why Roark had to save the watchman’s life by almost sacrificing Dominique’s. Yet, he says he is glad she did it and that she values Roark’s work as much as he does. He kisses her hand tenderly and Dominique knows he was very worried about her when she was in the hospital. She thinks that what is coming “will be worse for [him] than if [she] had died” because he has lost her.

Wynand tells her Roark is out on bail. Dominique asks if it will be like the Stoddard trial all over again, and Wynand says it will be different this time. She tells Wynand she loves him, and that she would like him to stick it out until the end. He says they won’t discuss it until it’s all done. He tells Dominique that “her lover” Roark is waiting to see her, and that he has come every day. Dominique asks what Wynand would do if she and Roark were really lovers, and he says he’d kill them both.

When a policeman had reached the scene of the explosion, he’d found the plunger that had set off the dynamite and Roark standing calmly beside it. “You’d better arrest me,” Roark had told him. “I’ll talk at the trial.” He’d refused to say anything more. Wynand gets him out on bail and tells Roark he has money to hire “the whole profession” of lawyers to defend him, but Roark says he will defend himself.

When Roark comes to see Dominique in her room, they smile at each other, and Dominique thinks they don’t need to say anything. She asks him how jail was, and he asks her not to start acting like Wynand about it, who was very upset. She says she won’t. Roark tells her he might have to go back to jail for years, and Dominique says she knows that. He says that if he is convicted, she must stay with Wynand, since they will need each other. And if he is not, he implies that he and Dominique will have a life together. Dominique says that even if Roark is convicted, it “will not matter. Not too much. Only down to a certain point.” Roark says he has waited seven years for her to feel this way. 

Toohey writes in New Frontiers that the Cortlandt explosion demonstrates “One man’s Ego against all the concepts of mercy, humanity and brotherhood.” He says he “regret[s] that the laws of our state allow nothing more than a prison sentence for this crime. That man should forfeit his life. Society needs the right to rid itself of men such as Howard Roark.” It is “a sensational scandal,” and there is “a fierce, personal quality in the indignation of every person who spoke about it.” Toohey sits back, pleased, and watches society’s fury.

The only person who goes against the tide is Gail Wynand. When Alvah Scarret says the Banner can’t possibly defend Roark, Wynand threatens to “bash [his] teeth in.” In several editorials, Wynand writes that Roark has been unfairly deemed guilty even before the trial. He defends Roark’s genius, and criticizes society’s glorification of self-sacrifice. Wynand orders all his publications to defend Roark and to change public opinion. His employees don’t like it, but they initially obey. They publish pictures of Roark’s great buildings and Wynand runs an exposé on the public housing racket.

On most evenings, Wynand, Dominique, and Roark sit together while Wynand talks about his work. He admits the Banner has been horrible, but says that with this campaign, he will vindicate himself. He says he holds a lot of power but has never tested it until this point. He insists that he runs things in the city and that a jury wouldn’t dare to convict Roark if they know Wynand supports him. Dominique confides in Roark that it is “horrible” because Wynand can’t help Roark, but Roark thinks it is nevertheless “great.” He says Wynand does not really want to save him, and that he is only the excuse.

There is a volley of public opinion against Wynand. Lancelot Clokey and others think it is appropriate that the Banner, “that stronghold of yellow journalism,” should defend Roark. A conservative newspaper writes that the Banner’s position “is inexplicable and disgraceful.” The circulation of the Banner drops, and the “We Don’t Read Wynand” campaign grows in strength. Alvah Scarret almost has a stroke from reading angry letters sent to the Banner.

Wynand notices that even his staff treats him with less deference. He orders Toohey not to mention Cortlandt in his column, and Toohey agrees. Wynand bores his acquaintances by talking only about the trial, and one day, a woman throws rotten beet leaves at him in the street. Scarret turns to Toohey to ask what they are to do, and Toohey looks pleased, saying it is time for them to take over the Wynand papers.