The Fountainhead Character Analysis

People can spend the entire duration of their lives searching for the one thing they most strongly desire...love. But, some people choose to avoid it, why? The Fountainhead, a novel written by Ayn Rand, introduces a character, who becomes familiarly known as Dominique Francon. She, unlike most people, is one of the few who avoids love. However, when she encounters a man by the name of Howard Roark, she finds herself struggling to destroy him because of the very thing she has chosen to avoid. The reasons for her craved destruction of Roark are not black and white, but they lie somewhere within her neuroses and Roark’s psychol.

Dominique embodies a masochistic personality. Her personal gratification depends on physical pain and suffering and she finds pleasure in submissiveness and self-denial. She also refuses to allow herself to love anyone or anything. For example, Dominique has a conversation with Alvah Scarrett where she exclaims her purchase of a statue of Helios from a museum in Europe. She proclaims, “I think I was in love with it” (145), yet when Alvah asks, “Where is it? I’d like to see something you like for a change” (145), she proceeds to tell him, “I broke it [...] I threw it down the air shaft” (145). Dominique’s reasoning for destroying the statue lies behind her belief that the world exists to destroy beauty, purity, and perfection. She claims she broke the statue, “So that no one else would ever see it” (145). She believes that something so beautiful should not be seen by the eyes of ordinary people because they are not worthy of its excellence. Their lack of appreciation for something with such beauty is disrespectful, and she does not want their negligence to destroy it. She must destroy it so that no one will e...

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...nd is overcome by the world, then she was right, but if Roark succeeds, then she can too. She believes that the type of power her and Roark hold is necessary to society, and by withholding it, she is depriving society of what it needs the most.

Society only tolerates mediocrity. Howard Roark is not tolerated. Therefore, he is not a mediocrity. Dominique Francon struggles to destroy Roark because he is not a mediocrity. He is unfettered. He is strong and defiant, and the world exists to ruin people like him. A society hostile to the ideas of innovative thinkers is one which Howard Roark must continually fight to survive. Dominique does not want Roark to waste his talents on a society that will not appreciate his work, therefore she must destroy him before society can. She must destroy true beauty before those who are unworthy of viewing it can see it and destroy it.