Okay, let’s talk about it, let’s talk about the rape scene in The Fountainhead. Why would Ayn Rand include such a scene in the story? If you think about it, people would be more open to her ideas if she hadn’t included — what many call — a “glamorized rape scene” in her book, so why did she do it?
Before I share my insights on the subject, I would like to give some context to those not familiar with the scene.
Basically, in The Fountainhead, there is a scene in which Dominique Francon invites Howard Roark to come to her room and fix her fireplace, but things escalate and he ends up raping her after their second meeting.
If you read the scene on it’s own, it’s clear why people think it was rape. The scene describes Howard entering Dominique’s bedroom, restraining her and forcing himself on her as she tries to fight him off. But did she want it? Did she ask for it? That’s where the debate begins.
When you know the context preceding the scene, the case for this being rape starts to fall apart. For instance, when reading the novel, it is evident that Dominique was attracted to Howard before the incident occurred, even though—for her own reasons—she acted like she didn’t like him. To give you a hint of Dominique’s secret feelings for Howard, read the excerpt below. In this scene, Dominique is at a social event, mingling but distracted by these secret thoughts:
“And she thought, with a vicious thrill, of what these people would do if they read her mind in this moment; if they knew that she was thinking of a man in a quarry, thinking of his body with a sharp intimacy as one does not think of another’s body but only of one’s one.”(1)
Another fact that alters the meaning of this scene is Dominique’s choice of words when asking Howard to come fix her fireplace. This is what she says:
“‘I have been thinking of you,” she said softly, and stopped, then added, her voice flowing on in the same tone of compelling invitation, ‘because there’s a bit of a dirty job to be done at my house. Would you like to make some extra money?’”(2)
Then, while Roark is fixing the fireplace, Dominique is basically leering at him as he’s working. Here’s what she is thinking about as she watches him work:
“She approached him and stood silently over him. She had never stood so close to him before. She looked down at the smooth skin on the back of his neck; she could distinguish single threads of his hair. She glanced down at the tip of her sandal. It was there, on the floor, an inch away from his body; she needed but one movement, a very slight movement of her foot, to touch him. She made a step back.”(3)
However, that day nothing happened between them. Howard comes back again on a different day to “finish the job.” It is on that day that the alleged rape takes place. As mentioned earlier, this incident is labeled as “rape” because Dominique resists Howard as he attempts to force himself on her, but the way Rand describes Dominique’s state of mind during the incident gives the scene a different meaning:
“It was an act that could be performed in tenderness, as a seal of love, or in contempt, as a symbol of humiliation and conquest. It could be the act of a lover or the act of a soldier violating an enemy woman. He did it as an act of scorn. Not as love, but as defilement. And this made her lie still and submit. One gesture of tenderness from him-and she would have remained cold, untouched by the thing done to her body. But the act of a master taking shameful, contemptuous possession of her was the kind of rapture she had wanted.”(4)
So Dominique wanted Howard to do this to her in this way. She didn’t want tender love-making, she wanted him to take her.
Right after the incident, Howard leaves and Dominique is left alone to reflect on what just happened. In this sequence she seems to be savoring the moment instead of being upset about it:
“She turned the light on in the bathroom. She saw herself in a tall mirror. She saw the purple bruise left on her body by his mouth. She heard a moan muffled in her throat, not very loud. It was not the sight, but the sudden flash of knowledge. She knew that she would not take a bath. She knew that she wanted to keep the feeling of his body, the traces of his body on her, knowing also what such a desire implied.”(5)
Now, before discussing what this scene means within the context of the novel, let’s agree on one thing; in real life this would definitely be rape because Dominique fought and tried to stop Howard and he forced himself one her anyway. But what about the scene within the world of the book?
If we look at the exchanges between Dominique and Howard before the incident, it becomes clear that Dominique wanted this to happen to her. She wanted Roark to dominate her because she’s not a “normal woman.” She’s a very tormented woman who doesn’t like doing things the conventional way. To explain Dominique’s state of mind is a whole other conversation, so I would just encourage you to read or reread the book to try to understand her better. But in this case we only need to know that Dominique “wanted it” which is why Ayn Rand included this “sex scene” in the story.
In fact Ayn Rand commented on the subject in real life, she speaks about this in the book Letters of Ayn Rand. On page 282, she responds to a fan that had inquired about subject with the following:
“I am afraid that you have misunderstood Dominique in a very improper way. You write as if you thought that the lesson to be derived from it is that a man should force himself on a woman, and that she would like him for that. But the fact is that Roark did not actually rape Dominique; she has asked for it, and he knew that she wanted it. A man who would force himself on a woman against her wishes would be committing a dreadful crime. What Dominique liked about Roark was the fact that he took responsibility for their romance and for his own actions.”(6)
So there you have it. Ayn Rand did not condone rape. She was trying to comminicate other ideas about the Dominique’s character, the way her mind works, and her relationship to Roark, but she was not trying to glamorize rape. And as Rand mentioned in her letter, anyone who would do something like this to someone else in real life would be committing a terrible crime, so nobody should go around thinking they can read people’s minds. Nobody should ever assume that someone “wants it.” This type of encounter can only work in literature.
References:
[1] Rand, A., 1993. The Fountainhead (student ed.) p.209.
[2] Rand, A., 1993. The Fountainhead (student ed.) p.210.
[3] Rand, A., 1993. The Fountainhead (student ed.) p.212.
[4] Rand, A., 1993. The Fountainhead (student ed.) p.217.
[5] Rand, A., 1993. The Fountainhead (student ed.) p.217.
[6] Rand, A. 1946. In Berliner, M., 1997. Letters of Ayn Rand. p.282.
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