Fountainhead

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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.

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