Wikipedia gives an amazing analysis of each character (archetype) in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead:
Peter Keating
Peter Keating is also an aspiring architect whose original tendency was to become a painter, but his opportunistic mother pushed him toward architecture because she believed architects make more money than painters. Keating's creative abilities become suppressed, but his willingness to build what others wish leads him to temporary success. He attends architecture school with Howard Roark, who helps him with some of his less inspired projects. He is subservient to the wills of others: Dominique Francon's father, the architectural establishment, his mother, even Roark himself. Keating is "a man who never could be, but doesn't know it". The one sincere thing in Keating's life is his love for Catherine. She is Ellsworth Toohey's niece, but Keating initially refuses her suggestion to introduce him to her uncle. He does this despite the fact that an introduction to the influential architectural critic Toohey would help his career. In all other circumstances Keating is absolutely relentless and ruthless in furthering his career, even to the extent of bullying a sick old man and causing his death. Keating's offer to elope with Catherine is his one chance to act on what he believes is his own desire. But, Dominique arrives at that precise moment and offers to marry him for her own reasons, and his acceptance of the offer and betrayal of Catherine ends the potential of romance between them.
Ellsworth Toohey
Ellsworth Monkton Toohey, who writes a popular art criticism column, is Roark's antagonist. Toohey is an unabashed collectivist and Rand's personification of evil (when speaking freely, he explicitly compares himself to Goethe's Mephisto, who tempted Faust to destruction). He falsely styles himself as representative of the will of the masses.
Aiming at a society that shall be "an average drawn upon zeroes," he knows exactly why he corrupts Peter Keating, his boss, and explains his methods to the ruined young man in a passage that is a pyrotechnical display of the fascist mind at its best and its worst; the use of the ideal of altruism to destroy personal integrity, the use of humor and tolerance to destroy all standards, the use of sacrifice to enslave.[16]
Having no true genius, Toohey's mission is to destroy excellence and promote altruism as the ultimate social ideal. This is put forward in one of his most memorable quotes: "Don’t set out to raze all shrines—you’ll frighten men. Enshrine mediocrity, and the shrines are razed."
Rand used her memory of the British democratic socialist Harold Laski to help her imagine what he would do in a given situation.[17] Lewis Mumford was also an initial inspiration.[17]
In the biography of Toohey, it is mentioned that in his younger age he aspired to become a clergyman, but abandoned religion after discovering Socialism and considering that it better served his purposes. (There is no explicit mention of what denomination the young Toohey belonged to, but a later reference by his niece Catherine to the time when she used to "go to confession in church" seems to indicate a Roman Catholic background). In that, Toohey's early career parallels that of Stalin, who had also trained for the priesthood in his young age - though Toohey's methods are much more subtle than those of the Soviet dictator, and he builds up a formidable power structure without resorting to an outright seizure of power or establishing a secret police apparatus.
Indeed, even when frankly describing the nightmare world which is his ultimate aim ("A world where the thought of each man will not be his own, but an attempt to guess the thought of his neighbor (...) Men will not work for money, but for prestige, the approval of their fellows - not judgment, but public polls") Toohey makes no mention of any overt dictatorship or coercive apparatus. Rather, Toohey's methods throughout the book suggest that such a regime might be able to retain the forms of democracy, multi-party elections and a free press, with actual power held by Toohey-like "informal advisers".
As described in his biography, Toohey had already in early childhood developed a talent for subtly manipulating his parents and elementary school class-mates in order to gain power over them. The adult Toohey - who "never sees men, only forces" (Book II, Ch. 6) - is a master schemer and manipulator who, like a chess master, can devise a gambit and predict many moves in advance. For example, Toohey sets Hopton Stoddard to hire Roark for the construction of his temple - and without having ever spoken to Roark, just by having seen Roark's buildings, Toohey is able to give his proxy Stoddard the arguments which would induce Roark to undertake the job: "It doesn't matter if you don't believe in God, Mr. Roark; you are a profoundly religious man, in your own way. I can see it in your buildings". Having seen Roark's buildings, Toohey has a good idea what kind of temple Roark would construct - and even before Roark ever heard of Stoddard and his temple, Toohey already planned how he would attack the temple once built, get it destroyed and Roark discredited, and transform it an "institute for subnormal children".
Roark's and Toohey's being the precise antithesis of each other is emphasized by a similarity in the way that Roark's buildings are first introduced in the book ("They were the first houses built by the first man born, who had never heard of others building before him") and the way that Toohey's public speaking is introduced ("The voice spoke English words, but the resonant clarity of each syllable made it sound like a new language spoken for the first time"). Toohey in fact very much wants Roark's recognition, claiming in effect that his perception of the significance of Roark's work and then destroying it makes him the equal of its creator — a claim which Roark rebuffs in their only face-to-face encounter in the entire book (excluding Roark's trials): "Why don't you tell me what you think of me, Mr. Roark?" Roark replies, "But I don't think of you." Roark's retort is one of the most well-known lines in the book (as in the film made on its basis) [18]. As noted by Rand herself in the introduction to the 1968 edition, it was inspired by words actually said by her husband Frank O'Connor "to a different type of person, in a somewhat similar kind of context".
Gail Wynand
Gail Wynand is a powerful newspaper mogul who rose from a destitute childhood in the ghettoes of New York City to control the city's print media. While Wynand shares many of the character qualities of Roark, his success is dependent upon his ability to manipulate public opinion, a flaw which eventually leads to his loss of the love and friendship he truly cherished not from mind but heart, for the first time. Rand describes Wynand as "a man who could have been." It has been speculated that Wynand is partially based on real-life newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst since Hearst himself started by taking over his father's newspaper and spread from there. Hearst was also known as the father of the yellow journalism, which Wynand is known for in the The Fountainhead. Furthermore, much like Wynand, Hearst had his own dream house constructed in California, the landmark Hearst Castle. Eventually, both real and fictional moguls sold out their empires, taking the businesses public in order to keep the newspapers from going under. Despite the obvious parallels, however, Rand states in her introduction that none of her characters were based upon real people.
Howard Roark
As the protagonist and hero in the book, Roark is an aspiring architect who firmly believes that a person must be a "prime mover" to achieve pure art, not mitigated by others, as opposed to councils or committees of individuals which lead to compromise and mediocrity and a "watering down" of a prime mover's completed vision. Bowing to none, Roark rises from an unknown architect who was kicked out of school for "drawing outside of the lines". It is widely believed that Ayn Rand modeled the character of Howard Roark after Frank Lloyd Wright. Roark goes on to design many landmark buildings. Roark rails against convention, and is eventually arrested and brought to trial for dynamiting a building he designed in which the design was compromised by other architects brought in to negate his vision of the project but prevails and is vindicated by the jury.
Dominique Francon
Dominique Francon is the heroine of The Fountainhead, described by Rand as "the woman for a man like Howard Roark." Dominique is the daughter of Guy Francon, a highly successful but creatively inhibited architect. Peter Keating is employed by her father, and her intelligence, insight and observations are above his. It is only through Roark that her love of pleasure and autonomy meets a worthy equal. These strengths are also what she initially lets stifle her growth and make her life miserable. She begins thinking that the world did not deserve her sincerity and intellect, because the people around her did not measure up to her standards. She starts out punishing the world and herself for all the things about man which she despises, through self-defeating behavior. She initially believes that greatness, such as Roark's, is doomed to fail and will be destroyed by the 'collectivist' masses around them. She eventually joins Roark romantically, but before she can do this, she must learn to join him in his perspective and purpose.
However, Dominique Francon eventually learns not to let a flawed society and misled zeitgeist inhibit her creative and emotional expression and drive, nor poison her hope in her own ideals. By the end of the novel, Dominique no longer cares what anyone thinks or does. She lives her life for herself and no one else. She learns to love and create freely and passionately, and no longer cares whether the world is worthy of her expression. She has a new world now that is hers alone. Finally, it is the act of creating, loving, and living in which she finds happiness, rather than the results of these successes, no matter how good or bad the recognition may be. It no longer matters what might happen or what others think, because the happiness she finds cannot be taken away from her. Her new world, that in which she sets the standards by which all will live in regards to any association with Dominique, is worthy of her beautiful mind and heart because it belongs to her and no one else, and is shared on her terms alone. That is, Dominique's terms as well as those with the same individualistic, objectivist and uncompromising ideals.
It's interesting to note that Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead was rejected by TWELVE publishing companies in 1943, before one publishing company unenthusiastically made the decision to place the manuscript in print. Initial sales were sluggish at best, but as a few people bought it and actually read it, sales skyrocketed completely through word-of-mouth. By 1949, Hollywood finally caught on and made a movie based on the book (although Ayn says Hollywood botched the movie with poor editing and acting from beginning to end). The book continues to be a bestseller that nearly EVERYONE eventually reads at some point in their life, and in 2008 over 6.5 million copies were sold!
I challenge you to decide which archetype/character describes you? Are you fulfilling your life's purpose, as Roark does? Or does society get in the way of your success?
