Dominique’s beauty and strength of spirit make her a perverse, unusual woman and the perfect complement to Howard Roark. At the beginning of the novel, she is convinced of the world’s rottenness and believes that greatness has no chance of survival. She surrounds herself with the things she despises to avoid watching the world destroy the things she loves. Dominique instantly recognizes Roark’s greatness, but she does not initially believe that he can survive in a selfless and irrational society. The thought that a man like Roark needs society in order to build pains Dominique, and she tries to destroy him before the rest of the world can. Yet Dominique wants to fail in her bid to destroy Roark, because if she fails it means absolute good and genius can survive even in an evil world.

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