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Questions about Dominique, Wynand, and the Banner

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Eponine

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There's a detail near the end of The Fountainhead that made me wonder:

 

When Dominique woke up after the Cortlandt dynamiting and learned that the Banner was taking Roark's side, she said to Wynand, "I love you, Gail. If you stick to the end..." And Wynand said, "Don't offer me any bribes. This is not between you and me. Not even between him and me."

What was Dominique implying or thinking, when she said "If you stick to the end"? Would she have stayed with Wynand had he not given in eventually?

And a somewhat related question: When Wynand decided to reverse his policy on the Cortlandt case to save the Banner, shouldn't he anticipate that Toohey would come back and try to take over the Banner? It seems to me that he's smart enough to know that, in which case he'd realize that he'd have to close the newspaper anyway, so he could have closed it sooner rather than give in on the Cortlandt case.

Edited by Eponine
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What was Dominique implying or thinking, when she said "If you stick to the end"? Would she have stayed with Wynand had he not given in eventually?

 

You got that right. Wynand had for the first time met an incorruptible man. He had destroyed talented men in the past, merely for the enjoyment of having the power to do so. He could redeem his character in the defense of Roarke.

 

And a somewhat related question: When Wynand decided to reverse his policy on the Cortlandt case to save the Banner, shouldn't he anticipate that Toohey would come back and try to take over the Banner? It seems to me that he's smart enough to know that, in which case he'd realize that he'd have to close the newspaper anyway, so he could have closed it sooner rather than give in on the Cortlandt case.

I'm less certain as to how to answer this one. I suspect Wynand did not know the power of the monster he had created in Toohey. (This is not to suggest that Toohey was created by Wynand; he could have wrote for another paper.) Either way, it seemed like a risk worth taking at the time.

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The story’s point on this matter is that Wynand built his empire by cutting a deal with vicious or contemptible forces; from the start, he cannot use it to good ends. This inevitability is in place long before the strike. Since he couldn’t have stuck it out, questions about what would have followed if he had are moot.

That said, Howard and Dominique are an inevitable pair. She had married Gail for complicated reasons, while Roark is the love of her life all along. Once she saw, through one means or another, that the world is friendly to her ideals, she would have called off her campaign against him and married him.

Wynand doesn’t know in the beginning how evil Toohey is, but he has come to realize it by the time of the strike. Toohey gets his job back by means of a lawsuit which Wynand has no way to anticipate at the time he decides to back Roark. He doesn’t even know that the strike is going to happen, and much less is he a labor lawyer. He expects until just before his capitulation (his long walk in the rain) to prevail.

I still have a problem with that part of the story in that closing down a major operation like the Banner would, in a publicly-held corporation, require consent of the board and maybe even a vote of the stockholders. A CEO probably couldn’t do this unilaterally. On the other hand the paper is by this time financially wounded, and maybe closing it down would have been a prudent business move.

Edited by Reidy
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Both of your answers make sense, thanks.

Although I know Dominique had always loved Roark most, she obviously also started to have affection for Gail after seeing the good in him, and only decided to leave him when he gave in. So as a polyamorist I'm intrigued by the possible turn of events in an alternate universe, where Gail did stick to the end and Dominique would like to be with both men (if both of them agreed). But I suppose as Reidy said, the actual plot was more realistic given Gail's character.

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There's a detail near the end of The Fountainhead that made me wonder:

 

When Dominique woke up after the Cortlandt dynamiting and learned that the Banner was taking Roark's side, she said to Wynand, "I love you, Gail. If you stick to the end..." And Wynand said, "Don't offer me any bribes. This is not between you and me. Not even between him and me."

What was Dominique implying or thinking, when she said "If you stick to the end"? Would she have stayed with Wynand had he not given in eventually?

She meant that Wynand ahould fight for Roark till the outcome of the trial. She probably would only have stayed with Wynand had Roark lost the trial and was sent to jail. She was in love with Roark.

 

And a somewhat related question: When Wynand decided to reverse his policy on the Cortlandt case to save the Banner, shouldn't he anticipate that Toohey would come back and try to take over the Banner? It seems to me that he's smart enough to know that, in which case he'd realize that he'd have to close the newspaper anyway, so he could have closed it sooner rather than give in on the Cortlandt case.

He new that Toohey could never control the banner if he, Wynand, quit. He may have been smart enough, but he didn't have the moral fortitude withstand the social atmosphere that he helped create.

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Loving Gail in the full sense of that word doesn't mean she would have stayed with him.  He would be redeemed but she would likely have moved on to Roark who is still the redeemer in this case.  In this case they could have stayed close and been good friends – They all would have actually.

 

In this case, think of Atlas shrugged.  Dagny loved Rearden before she met Galt and she loved him just as much afterward, but at that point she moved on to someone she loved even more.  In this scenario they all stayed close and loved each other in their own way, but only two are romantically involved at that point.

 Love isn’t a pie with a fixed amount that decreases or increases based on who you give it too. 

 

As for the strike, in this case you can work through a couple of alternative situations or ask “what if” but…

I’m better of using an example here.  A writer/producer I like a lot is Michael Straczynski who wrote and produced the TV show Babylon 5.  Once, when at a convention for sci-fi fans a kid asked him how fast a Star Fury (space fighter) flew.  His response was, “The speed of plot”.  The point being he would not get into specifics on it because the speed needed to serve the story, not have the story serve the speed.  It wasn’t an important detail that was a deal breaker in the context of the story.

 

The strike is like that.  The strike as a plot and character development angle for Gail is more important than if Gail should have seen it coming.  At this point I could come up with other answers to just to show how ambiguous it really is – For example he was blinded by the passion of finally having a good cause he could back.   

So why did Gail not see the strike coming?  He was blinded by the plot. 

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 Love isn’t a pie with a fixed amount that decreases or increases based on who you give it too. 

Yes, that's exactly what I think. Love isn't a zero-sum game, so loving a new person doesn't have to mean loving the original partner any less. And if everyone is okay with polyamory, one doesn't have to leave their original partner, whom they still love, for someone else they love even more. This is just theoretically speaking though, not saying the love stories in Rand's novels should have had a poly ending. I just can't help wondering about an alternative ending, especially given that Rand was once in Dagny's position but chose to be involved with both men with their consent.

The strike is like that.  The strike as a plot and character development angle for Gail is more important than if Gail should have seen it coming.  At this point I could come up with other answers to just to show how ambiguous it really is – For example he was blinded by the passion of finally having a good cause he could back.   

So why did Gail not see the strike coming?  He was blinded by the plot. 

That's a good explanation. :)
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