english- fountainhead essay

7/27/2019 English- Fountainhead Essay

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Diane Xue

Bavlnka

AP English 12, Hour 5

2 September 2014

The Characterization of Peter Keating

As famed basketball coach-turned-author John Wooden once wrote, “Character is what

you truly are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are” (Wooden). In The

Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, the character of Howard Roark is ruled entirely by personal

character, while his peer, Peter Keating, places far more importance on public reputation.

Keating needs constant reassurance from others, and cannot believe in himself until someone

else believes in him first. For Keating, having a title means more than earning it; being told he is

a good architect by others is more important than believing it himself. Peter Keating is not truly

successful or happy because his need for others to see him as so outweighs his desire for

legitimate success and happiness.

Peter Keating is a man who cares more for the appearance of success than the actual

achievement of it. This tendency to toss aside personal integrity in favor of outward success can

be seen in Keating’s means to win the competition to build The Cosmo-Slotnick building. Peter

cares more about being the winner of the competition than winning with his own design. Feeling

“nothing but immense uncertainty when his sketches were ready,” Peter goes to Howard Roark,

ultimately submitting a design that, for the most part, is not his own (Rand 173). Keating’s

uncertainty is rooted in his insecurities, insecurities fueled by a vicious cycle. Peter Keating’s

focus on how others perceive him leads him to sacrifice integrity in order to please those around

him. Not being able to consider his own visions or think for himself, Keating is insecure in his



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decisions, relying on others to tell him if he is doing the right thing and if his work is good,

relying on Roark’s help throughout college and his career. This reliance on Roark does help

Keating achieve his perceived “success.” However, he himself knows he did not come to the

success by his own merit, leading him back to insecurity. Because Peter Keating is not a man of

integrity, he cannot be truly successful. All of his claimed personal successes are based on the

work of others or his manipulation of those around him, not his own skill.

When it comes to his happiness, Keating once again falls victim to his own insecurities.

Because Keating puts too much weight on the opinion of others, especially those he views as his

superiors, Keating makes decisions in sacrifice of his own personal happiness. He does this not

because of his selflessness, but because of his blind stupidity. Even though he is not truly happy,

he believes himself to be so because others tell him he should be. Keating is insecure in his own

opinions, making it is easy for others to sway him to feel the way they do. After his graduation,

Keating remembers he used to want to be an artist, that “it was his mother who had chosen a

better field in which to exercise his talent for drawing” (Rand 31). And thus, Keating pursues a

career in architecture, though being an artist may have made him happier. This event, however,

is nothing compared to the happiness Peter sacrifices under the influence of others when he

chooses to marry Dominique Francon over Catherine Halsey.

Peter Keating is selfish, ambitious, petty, indecisive, and manipulative, but if he has one

redeeming quality, it is his love for Catherine Halsey. Peter ’s love for Catherine is his one true

emotion that comes from within him and no one else, the only thing he is really sure of. The

night Catherine comes to Keating’s apartment, Peter feels “conscious of nothing save the sudden

stab of joy he had felt on seeing her; the joy told him that nothing had changed, that he was safe

in certainty, that her presence resolved all doubts” (Rand 149). When Peter is with Catherine,



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nothing else matters; it is the only time in his life when he does not care about anyone else in the

world, and yet, he tosses aside the chance to be truly happy with someone he loves in exchange

for the appearance of happiness with someone he can only pretend to love. Keating does not love

Dominique. Even when he tells her he loves her, he “was lying…so he was sure of himself and it

was not difficult” (Rand 181). Despite his true feelings, Keating chooses to marry Dominique

because enough people tell him he should. His mother pressures him to marry Dominique to

further his career. Guy Francon sets up a lunch between them in hopes of bringing them together.

Even Catherine’s own uncle, Ellsworth Toohey, tells Keating after the costume ball, “And

looking at you tonight, I couldn’t help thinking of the woman who would have made such a

perfect picture by your side…Dominique Francon” (Rand 321). For someone like Peter who is

self-described as “never sure of [himself],” someone who admires Howard Roark for his ability

to decide for himself, the opinions of these three authority figures in his life is enough to make

him forget his feelings for Catherine and convince himself he is in love with Dominique (Rand

33). In choosing to marry Dominique, not only does Keating lose any trace of integrity he had

left, he also loses an opportunity for true personal happiness.

Peter Keating is not capable of success and happiness because he is only as successful as

people tell him he is and he is too weak-minded to fight for his own happiness. It is not that

Keating does not want to be happy or successful; he is just too busy looking for the easy way out.

He would rather have others do his work, choose for him, leaving the task of deciding what is

right and wrong to those around him, and consequently leaving his fate in the hands of others. As

Rand states, “He was great; great as the number of people who told him so. He was right; right as

the number of people who believed it,” but only so (Rand 188). Peter Keating does not have the



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integrity that would allow him to believe in himself, and therefore, he does not achieve the

luxuries of success and happiness.



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Works Cited

Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead . New York: Signet, 1952. Print.

Wooden, John, and Steve Jamison. Wooden on Leadership. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005.

Print.

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