That dusty book had been staring at me from a forgotten little corner for several months, and I kept thinking I’ll pick it up again. Finally, I couldn’t resist it any longer. I lifted it, swept off the dust, and stepped into Howard Roark’s world, and I’m delighted to say that once again, I’ve been as fascinated by The Fountainhead as I ever was.
Beyond the fascination, it’s made me think more thoughts than I can begin to count. There have been questions, and I have found answers. Yet, of all the things, there is one particular incident along the course of the story that intrigued me for long. It’s about Dominique posing naked for the sculpture in the Stoddard temple. Ayn Rand does not delve into it – Dominique doesn’t say why she does it, and it is not clearly suggested elsewhere. Roark tells Mallory that she will pose. And she does. However, if one considers it carefully, that action contradicts the very premise that lies at the center of Dominique’s life – that the proud, the strong and the heroic cannot succeed in the kind of world that it is; that they should rather shut out the fire in their spirit, than create any inspiring product for a world full of second-handers to gawk over in hatred and bring down with glee. Yet, she leaves herself naked, literally, in body and spirit, to the very abuse she had always feared, and that she can’t bear. People destroyed the Stoddard temple, they slung filth on her exalted statue and drew lewd caricatures on its pedestal. And she always knew that it was doomed to such an end. So, why did she voluntarily immolate herself?
Well, here’s the best answer that I can offer…
As I perceive it, the meaning of this action of hers was, very simply, that for once, her resolve broke. Using a common phrase, she probably ‘couldn’t help herself.’ This was the one opportunity, perhaps the only she would ever have in her life, to be a part of a monument dedicated to the source of human greatness: the fearless, passionate and
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"The Stoddard temple, in fact, is Dominique’s defeat" - that is a very interesting identification! Ayn Rand said once that the character of Dominique was like herself in a bad mood. Dominique's skepticism is something that perhaps we've all experienced at one time or another, when we are weighed down by the enormity of the challenges we face in persevering with our ideals and our ideas - even though these are the very ideas that would save the world from itself. Roark and the Stoddard temple came to Dominique as the one bright spark that make you try regardless.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe it was that her resolve broke, more that her resolve was justified. She posed for the statue because she knew that it would be hated for the very idea it stood. She knew that only herself, Roark, and Mallory understood the spirit of the temple.
ReplyDelete"For once, even though she felt that the construction of this temple was a crime because of the tragic end that it would face, it was worth it. It was worth it, just to know the fact that it existed, to view it with her own eyes, to feel it, to be a part of it, to make that vision possible, even if was just for a few moments that led to destruction."
Yes. You are right by this but Stoddard temple was not her defeat, it was her victory. To be able to see her statue standing there, a representative of the power and the greatness of the human spirit. She hated it there. She despised the very construction of the building, just as she does all of Roark's buildings because she believes that the second-handers do not deserve them. Dominique did it, not for the second-handers but for the creators. To prove that they would not be crushed, not matter what the parasites did.