Quote 1
When
they lay in bed together it was—as it had to be . . . an act of
violence. . . . it was the moment made of hatred, tension, pain.
This quotation, from the eighth chapter
of the novel’s second book, describes the early relationship between
Dominique and Roark. Their passion feeds on force and struggle.
At this point in the novel, Roark and Dominique are both lovers
and antagonists—they sleep together at night and Dominique tries
to destroy Roark by day. She wants to test him to see whether he
is truly the principled man he seems. The novel abhors compassion
and warmth, and the violence of Roark’s relationship with
Dominique turns the fuzziness of love into something hard and tough,
and therefore, for Rand, admirable. This quotation evokes the violence
of their first sexual encounter, a highly idealized rape that Rand
endorses for its cold brutality. Rand contrasts this love between
two strong personalities with the whiny and comfortable love between
Katie and Keating. Katie and Keating’s cuddling leads to painful
codependence, but the tough, combative love of Dominique and Roark
produces power and free thought.
