Scott McCloud on comics | Video on TED.com

Scott McCloud on comics | Video on TED.com

The Crucible Guiding Questions by Acts

In descending order from Act 4 to Act 1

ACT FOUR QUESTIONS

1. Act 4 is set in what location at what time?
Location:________________________________ Time of Year: _________________________

2. Who is Herrick?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

3. Danforth and Hathorne talk about Parris and say that he is a bit “unsteady”. What do you think is causing
him to be “unsteady”?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

4. What does Parris reveal about Abigail and Mercy Lewis?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

5. What does Parris say he believes motivated Abigail and Mercy?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

6. What does Parris say about John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse? How does this display the change in his
character?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

7. What does Parris request happens?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

8. What is Danforth’s reason that they must be hung?
____________________________________________________________________________________

9. What does Danforth do that is ironic when speaking with Elizabeth Proctor?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

10. How has Proctor changed by the time he is reunited with Elizabeth?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

11. Who confessed to avoid hanging?
____________________________________________________________________________________

12. What has Rebecca Nurse done?
____________________________________________________________________________________

Indictment: a formal charge of having committed a most serious criminal offense

13. What has happened to Giles Corey?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

14. What has Martha Corey done?
____________________________________________________________________________________

15. What does the conversation that John and Elizabeth have reveal about their feelings and thoughts of one
another?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

16. Why won’t Proctor confess anyone else’s name?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

17. What does Proctor do after signing his confession? (Multiple actions should be listed here)
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

Beguile: influence by slyness

18. What does Elizabeth mean what she says “He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!”
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________


ACT THREE QUESTIONS

Vestry: a room in a church where sacred vessels and vestments are kept or meetings are held

1. Who is Hawthorne? What are his credentials? (This is throughout the Act)
____________________________________________________________________________________

2. Whose trial is going on at the beginning of Act 3?
____________________________________________________________________________________

3. What does Giles claim that gets him kicked out of the court?
____________________________________________________________________________________

4. Who is Danforth?
____________________________________________________________________________________

Contentious : likely to cause controversy
Contemptuous: expressing extreme disrespect

5. What does Giles mean when he says that he has “broke charity” with his wife?
____________________________________________________________________________________

6. Who else says that they have proof that the girls are frauds?
____________________________________________________________________________________

7. What proof do they have?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

8. How does Parris react to Proctor?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

9. What happens to Proctor when he asks to speak the truth to the court?
____________________________________________________________________________________
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

10. Who is Hale supporting at this point? (page 41)
____________________________________________________________________________________

11. What does Proctor find out about his wife from Danforth?
____________________________________________________________________________________

12. What does Proctor hand to Danforth that he hopes will help him free Elizabeth and Giles and Francis’s
wives? (3 Things)
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
13. What ends up happening instead?
1)__________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
2)__________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
3)__________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

14. What does Proctor tell Mary Warren to try and calm her?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

15. Who does Giles Corey accuse of pushing his daughter to “cry witchery”?
___________________________________________________________________________________

16. What happens to Giles? (p.43-44)
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

Prodigious: Great in size, large, a lot.

Effrontery: Arrogant behavior that you have no right to

17. What reasons does Mary Warren give to Hawthorne to explain why she said saw spirits?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

Base: bias; unfair; prejudice

18. What does Abigail do when confronted by Hawthorne about the cries of witchcraft being lies?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

19. What does Proctor do to Abigail?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

20. What does Proctor end up confessing about himself?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

Lechery: unrestrained indulgence in sexual activity

Harlot: prostitute

21. How does Hawthorne check Proctor’s story?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

22. What do we know about Mary Warren that makes her an easy target for the girls to turn on? (Act 1)
____________________________________________________________________________________

23. How does Mary Warren react under the pressure of the girls?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

24. How has Hale’s character changed at this point? (Making him a dynamic character)
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

25. What is ironic about Parris’s belief and support of the girls?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

26. Who is still supporting the trials by the end of Act Three?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

27. Who is making a stance against the trials by the end of Act Three?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________


ACT TWO QUESTIONS

1. How much time has passed since the first act?
____________________________________________________________________________________

2. Look at the conversation and kiss between John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth. What can you infer about
their relationship?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

3. What gives Mary Warren the ability to tell Goody Proctor (Elizabeth) what she is going to do?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

4. If a person doesn’t confess what is the consequence?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

5. Elizabeth calls her husband out on his hesitation on going to Salem to try and stop the trial. What does she think is stopping him from going?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

6. How is the punishment of the court ironic?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

7. What motivation does the court seem to have?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

Ameliorate: to make a situation better or more tolerable

Jabberer: One who talks in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner

8. How does Mary Warren decide that Goody Osburn is a witch?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

9. After Mary Warren tells the Proctors of how Goody Osburn was convicted, what does Mr. Proctor point out
that there was none of?
____________________________________________________________________________________



10. What could be motivating Mary Warren to want to continue with the trial? What does it do for her in the society?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

11. Elizabeth Proctor believes that who called out her name?
____________________________________________________________________________________

12. What does Elizabeth want her husband to do to try and keep her safe?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

13. What does the metaphor “The promise that a stallion gives a mare I gave that girl!” suggest about Proctor
and Abigail’s relationship?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

14. What does Hale go around doing after the first day of court proceedings?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

15. What does this indicate about Hale’s character?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

16. What does Hale look at to decide if the Proctor’s have a Christian home?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

17. What question does Elizabeth contest and give Hale the answer he is NOT looking for?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

18. What is Rebecca Nurse charged with?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

19. Why do they keep saying “until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven”?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

20. Why does Martha Corey get charged with witchcraft?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

21. How has Mary Warren set up Elizabeth Proctor?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________


22. Proctor questions “Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy
now?” Why do you think people won’t stand up to them?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

23. What does Proctor say is walking around Salem?
____________________________________________________________________________________

24. When Proctor says “I’ll pay you, Herrick, I will surely pay you!,” what does he mean?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

Lechery: unrestrained indulgence in sexual activity

25. What does Proctor mean when he says that “We are only what we always were, but naked now?”
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________


ACT ONE QUESTIONS
PART 1

1. What do you find out about Reverend Parris in the first paragraph?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

2. Where and when does the play take place?
____________________________________________________________________________________

3. What do you learn about the Puritan society (beliefs and daily lives)?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

4. How were the Puritans of Salem in 1692 different from those that arrived on the Mayflower?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

5. What is the paradox that the Salem tragedy developed from?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

6. What did the witch-hunt allow the Puritans to do that hey had not been able to in the past?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

7. Who brings the news that there is no medication for Betty to the Reverend? ________________________

8. What does Abigail tell Susan before she leaves?
____________________________________________________________________________________

9. What did the Reverend catch Betty and Abigail doing?
____________________________________________________________________________________

10. What can you interpret about Reverend Parris’s character from his conversation with Abigail? (You may
want to write down quotes and they indicate what they say about him)
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

11. What does Reverend Parris mean when he says “Your name in town-it is entirely white, is it not?
____________________________________________________________________________________

12. What does Goody Putnam (aka Mrs. Putnam or Goody Ann) say that Betty did?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

13. What do you know about Thomas Putnam?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

14. Mr. and Mrs. Putnam are the parents to whom? ________________________________________________

15. What has happened to their child?
____________________________________________________________________________________

16. What could Thomas Putnam’s motive be in the witch hunt?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

17. Mrs. Putnam begins to point the blame on whom? ______________________________________________

18. How does Mrs. Putnam’s claim gain momentum or strength?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

19. Who is Mercy Lewis and what does she look like?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________


Finish reading at stage direction “Mrs. Putnam goes out” p.12


Below list the characters that have been introduced and their relationships to one another.
















Name:____________________________
Period:____________________________
The Crucible

ACT ONE QUESTIONS
PART 2

20. How is Parris’s mind changed about going to address the crowd downstairs?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

21. Who is Mary Warren?
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

22. What does the conversation on page 13 between Abigail, Mercy, and Marry Warren (with an interjection by Betty) reveal about the plot?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

23. What does the conversation on page 13 between Abigail, Mercy, and Marry Warren reveal about their relationships with each other?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

24. Why would Abigail want to kill Goody Proctor?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

25. Who is John Proctor?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

26. How do Mercy and Mary respond to Proctor’s entrance?
____________________________________________________________________________________

27. What can you infer about the relationship between Abigail and Proctor by the beginning o f their
conversation on page 14?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

28. How does Proctor react to Abigail’s advances towards him?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________


29. Who is Rebecca Nurse (aka Goody Nurse)?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

30. What is going to end up happening to Rebecca Nurse?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

31. What does Rebecca say is wrong with the girls?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

32. In the conversation between Parris, Putnam, Proctor, Mrs. Putnam, and Rebecca, on pages 16-17, what is
revealed about their characters?
Parris: _____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Putnam:_____________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Proctor:_____________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Mrs. Putnam:_________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Rebecca:____________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

33. What is Proctor commenting on when he says “Why, then I must find and join it.” What tone or literary
device is he using?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

34. Who is Reverend John Hale?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

35. What was the outcome of the girl in Hale’s parish that was afflicted?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

36. What does the narrator mean when he says “the necessity of the Devil may become evident as a weapon, a
weapon designed and used time and time again in every age to whip men into surrender”?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

Diabolism: the worship of devils

37. What type of political culture does Miller seem to think would be best? (page 19 right)
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

38. What does Miller say that reminds you that the Red Scare is going on in the United States?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

Klatches: A fictional location (country)

Lascivious: driven by lust

39. Giles Corey seems very interested in what is going on. What could his motivation be?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

40. How many girls were dancing in the forest?
____________________________________________________________________________________

incubi (incubus): a male demon believed to lie on sleeping persons and to have sexual intercourse with sleeping
women

succubi (succubus): A female demon who would visit men at night and engage in sexual activity

41. What does Giles say that his wife does? How does this affect him?
____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________

42. Interpret the paragraph on p. 22 about Giles Corey. What does this say about him?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________



*Stop reading after the paragraph about Giles Corey on page 22.

In A Grove: Marrying Age of Women

Professor Takagi’s studies centered on the examination of mikudari han (rienj ), that is,
documents related to divorce in the Edo period. In his groundbreaking work he collected about
500 such documents and came up with the following findings (Takagi 1987, 1992):

• The mikudari han gave permission for both husband and wife to remarry;
• Divorce proceedings as recorded in these documents included neither the cause
for divorce nor any criticism of either party;
• For the divorce to take place, both parties submitted a type of document called the
rienj kaeri issatu, or receipt for mikudari han.

As a result of his studies we must reevaluate our general understanding of divorce in Tokugawa Japan, which had been understood as initiated only from the side of husband. We now see that divorce occurred, not through the action of the husband, but through the coordinated
activity of the families on both sides. Marriage in the Edo period was usually set up within the
framework of two families, on roughly equal terms, thus making divorce and remarriage easy for
both sides. This was true even among samurai. One study of the shogunal hatamoto vassals has
shown the divorce rate to be, on average, 10% (Asakura 1990).

As a pioneer of demographic research in Japan, Professor Akira Hayami contributed to
women’s studies by investigating peasant-class family histories in Mino (Gifu prefecture) that
covered a period of nearly one hundred years. He found that by the 19th century it had become
usual for women to postpone their marriages by working outside the family for a few years. As a
result, the average marriage age of the middle to lower classes rose to 25, while upper-class
women usually married at the age of 21. Of course the relatively late marriage influenced the
number of children, the patterns of inheritance among peasant families, and also the level of
population growth.



http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~rijs/pdfs/yabuta.pdf

In A Grove: Deforestation

Our journey through environmental history has so far taken us from medieval England to ancient India and the Roman Empire.
Today we revisit Japan’s Edo period in the mid-1600s, a time of turmoil that resulted in an amazingly complex environmental policy that still influences our ideas on conservation today.

The Edo period began in 1603 when Tokugawa Ieyasu seized power and established the Tokugawa shogunate, with headquarters in the city of Edo. During this time the Tokugawa shoguns, or generals, effectively controlled the country, becoming even more powerful than the Emperor in Kyoto.

The period preceeding the beginning of the Edo period had been a time of growth both in terms of economics and population. By 1570, shortly before the Edo period began, Japan’s population had reached 10 million. This spike in population and the corresponding need for natural resources led to a serious environmental problem for Japan. For the first time, the country was faced with widespread deforestation.

Deforestation was not an entirely new phenomenon. As long ago as 600 A.D. there had been localized deforestation, most notably in the Kinai region, as wood was required for housing, war, or monuments. This didn’t become a serious environmental problem at first since Japan’s population was small and there were plenty of forests for use while the others were abandoned. In fact, many people at the time actually encouraged deforestation so they could use the newly cleared land for agriculture and created new growth forest products that were used for fertilizer, fuel, and animal feed.

When the population reached around 10 million, however, this system of forest exploitation became unsustainable. For about a century, beginning in the mid 1500s, timber harvests for use in ship-building, construction, and firewood ravaged the Japanese forests as Japan’s population ballooned.

In the mid 1600s, people started to notice the environmental issues that deforestation had wrought in Japan. Not only was it much harder to find decent timber, but soil erosion had become noticeable. Erosion in turn led to flooding, mudslides, and the silting up of rivers and streams.

In 1666, the country had reached a breaking point and the shogunate took action. They implemented a national plan to reduce logging and replace the forests. To begin with, one had to receive the approval of a high government official to harvest and use wood. In addition to that, the government began to encourage the planting of tree saplings and the study of forest management.

The plan was incredibly effective. By the early 1700s, Japan had a complex and successful system of forestry management in place. Villages applied their community approach to agriculture, which had made for successful rice harvests, to forestry management. In time, some of the world’s first tree plantations were created.
With the creation of trees as a form of controlled agriculture came far greater research and understanding into trees. Scholars and woodsmen developed new techniques to plant and care for tree species, many of which are still applied today.
While Japan’s forestry management system was effective, it was by no means fast. It took hundreds of years for the country to recover from the damage caused by exploitative use of their natural resources. The program was judged to come to a successful end only in the early 20th century. That’s something to think about with our own consumption of resources.

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/offbeat-news/environmentalism-in-1666/790

TOPIC: The Alchemist

• At the start of his journey, when Santiago asks a Gypsy woman to interpret his dream about a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids, she asks for one-tenth of the treasure in return. When Santiago asks the old man to show him the path to the treasure, the old man requests one-tenth of his flock as "payment." Both payments represent a different price we have to pay to fulfill a dream; however, only one will yield a true result. Which payment represents false hope? Can you think of examples from your own life when you had to give up something to meet a goal and found the price too high?
• Paulo Coelho once said that alchemy is all about pursuing our spiritual quest in the physical world as it was given to us. It is the art of tranmuting the reality into something sacred, of mixing the sacred and the profane. With this in mind, can you define your Personal Legend? At what time in your life were first able to act on it? What was your "beginner's luck"? Did anything prevent you from following it to conclusion? Having read "The Alchemist," do you know what inner resources you need to continue the journey?
• One of the first major diversions from Santiago's journey was the theft of his money in Tangier, which forced him into taking a menial job with the crystal merchant. There, Santiago learned many lessons on everything from the art of business to the art of patience. Of all these, which lessons were the most crucial to the pursuit of his Personal Legend?
• When he talked about the pilgrimage to Mecca, the crystal merchant argues that having a dream is more important than fulfilling it, which is what Santiago was trying to do. Do you agree with Santiago's rationale or the crystal merchant's?
• The Englishman, whom Santiago meets when he joins the caravan to the Egyptian pyramids, in searching for "a universal language, understood by everybody." What is that language? According to the Englishman, what are the parallels between reading and alchemy? How does the Englishman's search for the alchemist compare to Santiago's search for a treaure? How did the Englishman and Santiago feel about each other?
• The alchemist tells Santiago "you don't even have to understand the desert: all you have to do is to comtempate a simple grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation." With this in mind, why do you think the alchemist chose to befriend Santiago, though he knew that the Englishman was the one looking at him? What is the meaning of two dead hawks and the falcon in the oasis? At one point the alchemist explains to Santiago the secret of successfully turning metal to gold. How does this process compare to finding a Personal Legend?
• Why did Santiago have to go through the dangers of tribal wars on the outskirts of the oasis in order to reach the Pyramids? At the very end of the journey, why did the alchemist leave Santiago alone to complete it?
• Earlier in the story, the alchemist told Santiago "when you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed." At the end of the story, how did this simple lesson save Santiago's life? How did it lead him back to the treasure he was looking for?
From the University of Chicago
• What is meant by the "lanuage of the world"?
• Are omens really out there and are they important? What are omens? Are they just illusions that we see to justify something we feel or want to do, or are they something more?
• Are the king, the crystal merchant and the alchemist the same person or spirit?
• What was the point of finding the treasure close to where it was first dreamed about?
• Was the journey or finding the treasure more important? What does this mean about life? What happens in life when one actually achieves their personal legend?
• What was the point of the boy becoming the wind?
• What is your personal legend? Is it important to have one?
• Does the simplistic and primitive style of this book add or detract from the main goal, what ever you think the main goal is?
• What does it mean to say "the universe conspires to help you achieve what you want"?

TOPIC: Fountainhead

. Talk about the altrusim v. selfishness, one of the novel's key issues. How do the characters (or Rand) turn those qualities on their heads?

2. Discuss the portrayal of women in the novel, specifically Dominique and Catherine. How do they compare to the novel's male characters?

3. Consider Roark's bombing of the Cortlandt Complex. Are we supposed to approve or disapprove his use of violence?

4. What are the differences between the Dean's philosophy and Roark's? Consider, for instance, how the Dean believes in traditional architecture and the desires of the client rather than innovation and artistic freedom.

5. Toohey and Roark are alike in that they are driven by the belief in adhering to one's principles. How do they differ?


FOR BRILLIANT STUDENTS:

6. Read Book IV, Chapter 3 of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (and as much of the rest of Aristotle's ethics as possible) and write an essay answering the question: Does Howard Roark qualify as an example of Aristotle's "proud man" (sometimes translated as "the great-souled man")?

7. Read Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged. Both novels are about the role of the mind in man's life. In The Fountainhead, the focus is on the individualistic nature of the mind's functioning, while Atlas Shrugged emphasizes the mind as man's tool of survival. Compare Ayn Rand's understanding of the mind's role in human life as presented in The Fountainhead with the broader and deeper understanding in Atlas Shrugged.

8. Read Marx and Engels' The Communist Manifesto. Is the collectivist society envisioned by Ellsworth Toohey consistent with the communist state advocated by Marx and Engels?

9. Read Ayn Rand's The Virtue of Selfishness or Leonard Peikoff's Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand. How does Howard Roark's character and life illustrate Ayn Rand's theory of rational egoism?

Fountainhead Part 3 Questions

Part Three

1.) Gail Wynand is a brilliant individual who rose out of the slums by means of his own talent and effort. But despite his reverence for man's noblest achievements, his newspaper presents lurid, loathsome values to the most vulgar people. Why does Wynand pander in this manner? What is the meaning of such a self-betrayal?

2.) Toohey presents Mallory's sculpture of Dominique to Wynand in an effort to bring Dominique and Wynand together. What is the purpose of Toohey's scheme? Why does he need something to distract Wynand's attention away from his newspaper?

3.) What is Toohey's overall purpose on The New York Banner? What is his overall purpose in regard to society in general? Dominique warns Wynand against Toohey, but he is too contemptuous of Toohey to heed her. Is Dominique correct in her assessment of Toohey's actual motives?

4.) What is Dominique's motive in marrying Wynand, for becoming "Mrs. Wynand Papers"? Does it bear any similarity to her reason for marrying Keating? Does she accomplish the goal she set out to reach? Tie this discussion to the quote from Nietzsche--that nobility of soul is not to be lost--that the author cites in the "Introduction" to the 25th anniversary edition

"It is not the works, but the belief which is here decisive and determines the order of rank--to employ once more an old religious formula with a new and deeper meaning,--it is some fundamental certainty which a noble soul has about itself, something which is not to be sought, is not to be found, and perhaps, also, is not to be lost.--The noble soul has reverence for itself." (Friedrich Nietzche, Beyond Good and Evil.)


5.) Why does Wynand fall deeply in love with Dominique? Do they share noble qualities in common? Have they made a similar mistake? Because of Wynand's undeniable virtues, do Dominique's feelings for him change?

6.) On her way to Reno to secure a divorce from Keating, Dominique stops in Clayton, Ohio to visit Roark. Why is Dominique willing to marry Roark only if he renounces architecture? What is the meaning of Roark's response that if he wanted to be cruel, he would accept her proposal? Aside from the obvious fact that she loves Roark, what does this visit show the reader about Dominique?