Enright is a tough, hard-bitten entrepreneur who began his career as a coal miner in Pennsylvania and who earned his fortune through years of prodigious effort. But Enright is more than a self-made multimillionaire. His method of conducting business is strikingly innovative. He branches out into many fields, ranging from […]
Read more Character Analysis Roger EnrightCharacter Analysis Kent Lansing
Lansing is a salesman with a rare appreciation of artistic genius and an even rarer willingness to fight for it. He is a member of the board formed to build the Aquitania Hotel, a luxury establishment on Central Park South. Lansing recognizes Roark’s extraordinary talent, even though at this early […]
Read more Character Analysis Kent LansingCharacter Analysis Mike Donnigan
Though a relatively minor figure in the novel, Mike’s character dramatizes a significant point in Rand’s philosophy. Mike is a construction worker, an electrician, who both admires competence and recognizes Roark’s. Their mutual love of construction is the bond that unites them. Mike is not a genius; he is a […]
Read more Character Analysis Mike DonniganCharacter Analysis Austen Heller
Heller, a man with individualistic beliefs, is a columnist for a dignified paper not at all like Wynand’s tabloids. He knows nothing about architecture, but he knows what he likes — and he hires Roark to build a private home. Heller is a man who trusts his own judgment. Roark, […]
Read more Character Analysis Austen HellerCharacter Analysis Steven Mallory
Mallory is a brilliant young sculptor who becomes a close friend of Roark’s. His work demonstrates an exalted view of the human potential. He sculpts figures of man the hero, capable of achievement. Roark understands that Mallory is the best sculptor there is. “Your figures are not what men are, […]
Read more Character Analysis Steven MalloryCharacter Analysis Henry Cameron
Cameron is more than Roark’s employer and architectural teacher. As mentor, he is the closest thing to a father that Roark has. Cameron is a brilliant and innovative thinker. As a fictional example of an early modern designer who is among the first to build skyscrapers, he is similar to […]
Read more Character Analysis Henry CameronCharacter Analysis Ellsworth Toohey
Toohey is a power-seeker. In various ways, he attempts to gain control over the lives of other men. At the personal level, he acquires a legion of followers who blindly obey his every command. Toohey deceives his victims by posturing as a humanitarian, but the code he preaches — that […]
Read more Character Analysis Ellsworth TooheyCharacter Analysis Peter Keating
Keating is a conformist. He surrenders his judgment and allows other people to dominate his life. In this regard, he is the story’s foil, a contrast to its hero, Roark. Everything that Keating does is done under the influence of others. He becomes an architect (although he would prefer the […]
Read more Character Analysis Peter KeatingCharacter Analysis Gail Wynand
Wynand is a powerful publisher of vulgar tabloids that oppose everything Roark stands for. But he also, like Dominique, loves man’s noblest achievements, and owns a private gallery of great artworks. Wynand is a man of mixed premises. He rules his private life by means of his own judgment; consequently, […]
Read more Character Analysis Gail WynandCharacter Analysis Dominique Francon
Dominique is Roark’s lover and later his wife. An ardent idealist, she observes Greek sculpture, Roark’s buildings, the music of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, and she understands the human potential. Dominique recognizes man’s capacity for achievement, and this is the only thing she loves. Because she reveres man at his highest […]
Read more Character Analysis Dominique Francon