Chapter Text
Ayn Rand has described Dominique Françon as “herself on a bad day.” Through her character’s experiences, we are able to glimpse how she perceived her own relation to society.
In particular, this being a character defined by her romantic life, this will inform us about how she understood femininity in such a context. Elsewhere, she has mentioned that it is the natural inclination of a woman to engage in hero-worship, to look up to a man, and this is precisely what we can observe in Dominique’s relation to Roark.
This is not to say that she lacks agency. Through a major portion of the book, she will actively oppose not only him as a partner, but also his entire public career. The weight of the resolution of the romantic arc of the book rests on this struggle, where Dominique is eventually defeated and has to surrender her agency to the hero.
This structure is found again on Atlas Shrugged. With this, Ayn Rand seems to be transmitting her romantic ideal. If, as she has expressed in interviews, women need a superior man they can admire, this superiority will undoubtedly find its greatest expression through struggle, whereby only a man who can impose his will on her, who can defeat her, can be worthy of admiration. Those already familiar with the book will already recognise how this colours the sexual encounters depicted.
But before moving to the actual content of the book, it will be useful to discuss Objectivist aesthetics, which is concerned with studying the expression of human values. As a piece of literature, The Fountainhead was certainly intended to be studied in such a manner. For this reason, this being the first time Ayn Rand set herself to write about the ideal man, we should expect her as an author to engage in the same sort of hero-worship for Howard Roark that she regarded as proper for women in the sexual arena. To dismiss the idea that Dominique might have served as a self-insert, as the character who most directly admires Roark in the way every reader is meant to, would require us to ignore Ayn Rand’s ideas on aesthetics and sexuality.
Thus, we are to frame the story of The Fountainhead within the context of bodice rippers. The fantasy of being physically overcome by a brooding man is not an uncommon one in literature written by women. The idea that an author’s sexual fantasies being included need not detract from the work’s artistic merit is still not fully settled within our society. However, this might blind us when encountering cases where such fantasies add to the narrative.
In this essay, it is my aim to argue that the dynamic between Dominique and Roark serves as a microcosm for the larger themes of the book. Just as Keating's downfall is built on compromise and conformity, Dominique's delivery from suffering is the consequence of finally coming to terms with her desire for Roark, both as a sexual partner and as an architect worthy of admiration. Whereas in the main plotline Roark must fight against society to earn his place in it, the romantic side plot consists in overcoming Dominique’s rejection of him, rooted in her own internalised societal expectations of what a woman should be. Just as the societal pressure to conform stifles innovation and creativity, these also work to stifle female desire.