Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Ayn Rand's Dustier Corners pt. 2: Roark's forgiveness versus D

Rate this topic


Recommended Posts

Roark: "Dominique, wait till he [Wynand] recovers."

Dominique: "You know he won't recover."

R: Have a little pity on him.

D: Don't speak their language.

R: He had no choice.

D: He could have closed the paper.

R: It was his life.

D: This is mine.

"He did not know that Wyand had once said all love is exception-making; and Wynand would not know that Roark had loved him enough to make his greatest exception, one moment when he had tried to compromise."

(FH, 50th anniversary edition, p.668.)

I never fully understood why Roark and Dominique differed on this issue--of whether or not to forgive Gail Wynand--to the end. Even after three readings, the sexist side of me still cries "Hell hath no fury...", and I grit my teeth and see this as indication of fundamental differences between the male and female psyches.

Edited by Epistemological Engineer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What part are you confused about? Just the bolded text, or the whole exchange?

I'll have to reread the entire part again (I'm actually halfway through my 3rd reading right now), but waiting to finally be together until Wynand recovers would be a sacrifice of their love to the emotions of another person. Even though both Roark and Dominique love Wynand, they love each other more. However, Roark loves Wynand enough to have almost had pity on him, enough pity to not be with Dominique. In other words, he almost compromised his love for Dominique for his love for Wynand, which would've destroyed his relationship with Dominique (a higher value).

Dominique is being more consistent here than Roark, which shows the changes she went through to finally be with him. If she hadn't changed, she would've chosen to wait, torturing herself further still than she already did in the rest of the book.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm looking at what's behind the whole exchange; the bolded part serves to summarize the tension between the different emotional states.

I was always curious why--even at the end of the book, when the hero and heroine of the novel had gained all the wisdom to proceed with living the lives they had always wanted--one would choose to hold on to spite for the rest of her life while the other would forgive and free his soul from what could have been an everlasting hatred.

(Not essential, but still worth exploring at times.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the issue here is that Roark more thoroughly understands that Wynand made a really, really, big mistake in life -- similar to the mistake that Dominique made: Of going by other people's opinions instead of one's own first-hand knowledge. How big of a mistake one can make along those lines and still recover psychologically is a debatable question. Even though it was a mistake, one still waisted a lot of time and effort operating under that mistaken premises, leading to a lot of personal disasters. And I don't think it is a question of forgiving oneself, but rather of realizing one made a mistake, pick up the pieces of one's life, and learning how to live more rationally. But it is a hard blow psychologically to realize one has given so much power over one's life to others, thus trying to fight one's own monster creation, in a sense. Gail Wynand betrayed his whole life, and I think it would take incredible integrity to pick himself up and put his life back together again under better principles -- and he didn't have it in him to do that, mostly due to guilt. To Roark, it was metaphysically possible, so he was holding out hope; but Dominique realized that Gail had just given up the battle.

Compare this to the trials and tribulations of Hank Rearden in Atlas Shrugged, and how he was able to recover. He, too, acted as his own destroyer, but once he understood more about Objectivism (effectively) he was able to put the pieces back together again.

Sometimes it hits you like a ton of bricks that you really screwed up -- that you made decisions in the past that lead to disasters in the present. And it is really tough facing up to those. Dr. Peikoff in a recent podcast related the Objectivist view of pity as telling someone: I'm sorry you screwed things up so thoroughly.

Edited by Thomas M. Miovas Jr.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

While what you say may be true, I'm more interested in trying to understand Dominique's mindset.

Dominique's mindset was that she understood what she had done wrong and was willing to correct herself and follow a first-hander's perspective; and she knew that Wynand was not willing to do that. I wouldn't say that she was being vicious to Wynand, but she definitely had no sympathy for him. Remember that Dominique had to see the life of Wynand close up in order to understand that the power others had over her were given to them by her own submission -- and she understood that Wynand unleashed the mob to go after Roark. When Wynand was defending Roark, she knew Wynand had a chance; once he gave up that battle, it was all over -- Wynand let the mob win by surrendering to them; and Dominique, who loved male strength, couldn't abide by his surrendering. Remember, she had a mercy killing mentality -- and walking away from Wynand was her mercy killing of his hope residing in his love for her.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Huh. Hadn't thought about it that way. Thanks.

Also keep in mind that according to Ayn Rand, the essence of femininity is hero-worship. For some woman, once you drop down to less than a hero, you are nothing to them -- absolutely nothing. So, if Dominique had been the architect, she would not have built The Wynand Tower. She would not have designed and built a building in honor of Gail Wynand's life -- she would have left him become nothing -- to become dust and a dusty memory to be blown away by the winds of time.

So, in a sense, it was a kind of female disdain. Not of a woman scorned, but of a woman let down by a man she once loved.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...