Fountainhead

[Chiharu]

Been forced to read this, thought typing the characters might make it more fun...

Howard Roark: INTP
Peter Keating: ESFx
Dominique Francon: IxTP
Guy Francon: ESFJ
Mrs. Keating: ESTJ
Katie: ISFJ
Austen Heller: INTJ
Mike: xSTP

Not really a comprehensive list, and I'm not set on most of them, so feel free to contradict...

 

[Blackwater]

Howard Roark: INTJ/ Compulsive-Narcissist
Peter Keating: ENFP/ Histrionic

 

[Chiharu]

INTJ for Roark? Hmm... I think that does make more sense. I do see that he seems to use a lot of Ni.

But why do you say Peter Keating's an ENFP?

 

[Mal12345]

Dominique Francon = INFJ.

 

[Chiharu]

Dominique and INFJ? How so?

 

[Mal12345]

Dominique and INFJ? How so?

Consider her philosophy of life. She doesn't hate very many individual people, her hatred extends to all mankind. Mankind she believes is destined to spoil all greatness in the world. Thus she tries to destroy that which she loves before it's too late. But in destroying those things she holds dear, she is slowly destroying herself. And yet in her everyday dealings with people she feigns a stuck up air of indifference. Roark sees through this facade and points out to her that her relationship with mankind is parasitical, not individualistic or as independent as it appears. And that in her own way she has made her philosophy of life dependent upon the way others view greatness. This seems to concern great works of art, and those who produce them such as Roark.

 

[Mal12345]

I've been reading up on Roark at Sparknotes and came across this: "Consequently, Roark does not develop over the course of the novel—the ideal man does not need to change. "

Of course Roark develops - in understanding. Of course he is morally perfect throughout (according to Rand's standard of morality), but at first he suffers from a lack of comprehension regarding people. This is why he lost his first lawsuit over the Stoddard Temple. He basically suffered from the idea that everybody thinks the same way as he does, and so he believed the judge only had to look at pictures of the Temple to understand why Roark should win. This error costs him millions. On the second court case, he was not so blind.

 

[Chiharu]

I guess I could see Dominique as an INFj... it's just that most NFs are so... personal... it's hard for to wrap my head around that kind of general, impersonal hatred.

I think I've done a pretty crappy job typing these characters, I'm usually at least a bit closer... yet I can see everyone else's types and my original ones simultaneously...

Is it because the characters are unhealthy that I have such a hard time typing them... argh.

 

[Mal12345]

I guess I could see Dominique as an INFj... it's just that most NFs are so... personal... it's hard for to wrap my head around that kind of general, impersonal hatred.

I think I've done a pretty crappy job typing these characters, I'm usually at least a bit closer... yet I can see everyone else's types and my original ones simultaneously...

Is it because the characters are unhealthy that I have such a hard time typing them... argh.

I've read that neurotic characters are easier to define. But even in the real world, people don't always act "in character." Maybe when people discover typology and learn to type themselves then they start acting "within type" more often.

I didn't say anything about the other characters in TF. Roark is kind of INTJ and this has been pointed out on this forum in the past. Catherine Halsey seems more like the ISFP, IIRC. She fed off of her Uncle Toohey's philosophy, as did Peter Keating who also wanted to succeed at his unchosen profession in order to please others (type 3w2). If Peter is to be characterized as Roark's personality opposite in every way, then he is ESFP.

Toohey is Roark's philosophical opposite so it is fitting that he is some kind of deranged INTJ who burst out laughing in the middle of the street at midnight. (That was the scene where the cop told Toohey to go home because he's drunk. He wasn't drunk on alcohol, but with power.)

But there is something to be said for the idea that Rand's characterization of Roark was too flat to make a well-considered call on his type.