Previous
Part 4: Chapter 4
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
As Wynand edits the content of the Banner, its insipidness bothers him and he thinks about Roark. Thinking of Roark hurts him, but when he meets and talks to him, he feels no pain—only “a desire to laugh without malice.” They meet often and Dominique leaves them alone, knowing they prefer it. Roark tells Wynand they are not very different, and that he ended up liking him despite being determined not to.
Roark’s high standards make Wynand think about the compromises he has made in his own life, which pains him. However, in Roark’s presence he feels only joy.
Themes
One day, while driving towards the house being constructed in Connecticut, Wynand thinks that he is 51 years old and wonders how many more springs he will live to see. He thinks that he has no regrets about the life he has lived, and that his proudest achievement is that he has never looked for approval from other people.
Wynand thinks that he maintains his independence from the world by not seeking its approval.
Themes
Wynand watches Roark in the house and thinks that he is in his element in an unfinished building. Later, he asks Roark if he has ever been in love and Roark says that he still is. He also says that when he walks through a building, what he feels is much more.
While Roark admits that he is still in love with someone, he says that his work is more important to him. It brings him greater joy.
Themes
Wynand says that he detests people who look for a higher purpose and don’t know what to live for. He doesn’t understand how a human being can live for “anything but his own joy.”
Wynand and Roark don’t think there is a vague “higher purpose” to life—there is only personal happiness.
Themes
Get the entire The Fountainhead LitChart as a printable PDF.
Roark gets a branch from a tree and bends it, saying that he can make it a bow or a spear or a railing—and that this is the meaning of life: “The material the earth offers you and what you make of it.”
Meanwhile, Dominique struggles to witness Roark’s and Wynand’s friendship, but she remains patient and serene for Roark’s sake. She feels like the “barriers [between them prove] to her that no barriers could exist” and she knows that she and Roark love each other as before. She did not meet Roark alone, and wouldn’t visit the construction site, telling Wynand she’ll only see the house when it is complete. One day, she can’t help asking Wynand if he is obsessed with Roark, and he agrees that he is, adding that he can’t understand why she dislikes Roark. He says that after he has known Roark, he loves Dominique even more.
Despite all the barriers to their relationship, Roark’s and Dominique’s love for each other stays strong. Wynand seems to detect the similarity between them, telling Dominique that his love for her has grown even stronger after his friendship with Roark, most likely because he has come to believe in integrity and respect it.
Themes
