Ayn Rand creates a unique relationship between Dominique and Roark in her novel The Fountainhead. Not the typical dating couple, Dominique is a woman of great power that will destroy the man she loves instead of showing affection. Roark takes the womanpower of Dominique and responds with violent acts that satisfy his needs as well as hers. A new form of love is created in the Fountainhead. Power and love combine and takes the concept of affection to a completely different dimension. Couples work as a team; one will sacrifice for the other and vice versa. The whole idea of having someone always there for you is for support and care. The relationship between Dominique and Roark is not close to being associated to the typical relationship.
At the start of the secret relationship between Dominique and Roark, an architectural socialist begins to take power. Roark is seen as a threat to Toohey, the socialist, so Dominique plans to destroy Roark. Stoddard is hired by Toohey to hire Roark and trick him to doing business with Toohey. Roark’s work is sought as illegitimate in court and looses to Stoddard. Dominique then steps in finding a promising position to destroy the weakened Roark. The reader at this point in the novel notices the means behind Dominique’s desire to ruin Roark’s career. She does not feel that Roark’s gifted talent should not be revealed to society’s evil. Disgusted by society, Dominique will do anything possible to prevent Roark from designing buildings she admires and praises. As a selfish act, Dominique’s personality is introduced to the reader.
The attraction between Dominique and Roark is obvious but something seems to be holding them back even in their secret encounters. Oddly enough in public, Dominique tries to sabotage Roark’s career and desires to destroy him. Not until the sixth chapter in the second book does, Dominique’s feelings for Roark intensify. Pretending as if they just met, neither of them mentions their previous encounter at the cocktail party Roark hosts. Dominique then feels that Roark is testing her. This scene in the novel sets the mood of what the relationship will be like throughout the novel. An amused yet aggravated mood fills the room when Dominique comes to her conclusion. When Rand mentions Toohey spending the evening watching Roark carefully, this signifies that the connection between Dominique and Roark is visible. The ambiguity of Dominique’s reaction to her conclusion is erased, when Toohey’s perspective in taken into account, Dominique was pleased to find out that Roark would dare to do such thing.
Rand creates a difficult love race instead of improving the relationship between Roark and Dominique. Tensions between each other in public go beyond pretending and into reality. Instead of recommending Roark to Joel Sutton, for a business opportunity, Dominique gives the job to Keating but yet she confesses to Roark of her feelings and the reader is informed of how powerful her love towards Roark is at this point in the novel. The love she has towards him ironically harms their relationship. Instead of becoming closer to one another, Dominique promises to destroy Roark. Well aware, desire to test Roark’s strength will destroy Roark but at the same time, he is attracted by Dominique’s dangerous desires demonstrated in chapter seven of the second book.
Dominique and Roark visit each other at night more frequently and in the eighth chapter of the novel’s second book a significant scene reads, “When they lay in bed together it was—as it had to be . . . an act of violence. It was surrender, made the more complete by the force of their resistance.” This quotation describes the first stages of the true relationship between Dominique and Roark. Struggle and strength seem to be overwhelming but fuels this particular relationship. By day, Dominique does everything possible to tear apart Roark, showing her insecurity in finding out if Roark is a true man for her. At night, they sleep together and have violent sexual encounters. Negativity seems to evoke the relationship; they feed off of bad vibes, which they find attracting. Love in this novel is unique. The warmth and compassion in typical relationships are ignored. Dominique takes the good of relationships and turns it into hard and tough actions. The quotation describes Roark raping Dominique as a necessity in their relationship. At the same time, love between two strong characters is being contrasted by the warming and comfortable love between Katie and Keating. As Katie and Keating’s warm love leads to awful codependence, the tough love of Dominique and Roark creates power and free thought. Contributing to the progression of the plot, Dominique then marries to Peter Keating punishing herself for wanting Roark. The purpose of the difference in love is to prove that true love will not be perfect, no matter how it is expressed. The unexpected ending seems to prove that opposites attract each other as more personalities that are similar repeal one another.
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