By this time, the Bolsheviks were in power in Russia and confiscated her father’s pharmaceutical business, leaving the family with next to nothing. In high school, she decided that she was an atheist and that she placed her faith in reason. She began writing novels at the age of 10 and was interested in politics from an early age. Through Toohey’s character, Ayn Rand asserts that religious and socialist ideas of equality and service hamper the human potential for greatness.Ayn Rand was born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He has no respect for human beings, and unlike Roark, who admires human heroism, Toohey sees humanity as base and servile. While he professes to love people by preaching equality and selflessness, he in fact detests humanity and wants to enslave it by robbing people of their individuality. Yet, he is ready to pay this price for power. By building his identity on the power he holds over others, he has no self. He admits to Peter Keating that while he preaches selflessness in order to gain power over people, he understands that he is the most selfless of them all. Toohey is a canny villain who has no illusions about the nature of his power. He makes a splash with his first book on architecture, called Sermons in Stone, in which he praises architecture as an art form that is “anonymous.” This lands him a contract at a popular newspaper, the Banner, to write a daily column called “One Small Voice,” which Toohey uses to disseminate his socialist opinions and attack those who do not fit into his plans, like Howard Roark. Toohey’s message to the world is the glorification of the collective and the erasure of the individual. Because he stands with unions and supports workers’ rights, the working class loves him, and since he is witty and influential in the art world, he is welcomed into drawing rooms and fancy parties.

While Toohey is physically diminutive and seems genial at first, he has a way with words and is described as having “the voice of a giant” which he can use to “prove anything.” Unlike Roark, who ruffles feathers wherever he goes, Toohey has popular appeal and charms his way into various social circles. He is extremely intelligent and has a deep understanding of human nature, and he uses this to exploit people and gain power over them.

Ellsworth Toohey is the villain of The Fountainhead.

The fountain head book