Fountainhead:: Blog Three

2.) Toohey presents Mallory's sculpture of Dominique to Wynand in an effort to bring Dominique and Wynand together. What is the purpose of Toohey's scheme? Why does he need something to distract Wynand's attention away from his newspaper?

I think that Toohey has multiple reasons for trying to get Dominique and Wynand together. The first and foremost reason is to get the Stoneridge contract for Peter Keeting, Dominique's husband. He seems to think that she is not showing his career enough attention as of late and she needs to act like a concerned wife...which she isn't. One detail that Toohey failed to link between Dominique and Wynand, however, is how much they think in the same manner. This detail later brings a downfall to his scheme, as Wynand actually falls in love, for the second time ever, with Dominique.
I'm can't really put into words exactly why Toohey wanted Wynand's attention away from The Banner, but it seems relevant that he would be trying to do so in order to have more freedom in his column and the subjects that he writes about. The more freedom he achieves, the higher change he has of possibly taking over the paper. Although he wants this to occur, he doesn't want to actually earn it, as he is trying to be manipulative over Wynand to keep him from really discovering his intentions.
I think another overall purpose of Toohey's plan was to bring power onto himself. He already has power and respect from the mass majority of the society, but he sees that he could control even more, were he in Wynand's position. In a sense, he is also trying to make EVERYONE happy, including himself. I don't think he really sees the link between why Dominique would marry Keeting and why she actually ended up with Wynand, but who says he might not one day realize and claim that as a reason, as well?

3.) What is Toohey's overall purpose on The New York Banner? What is his overall purpose in regard to society in general? Dominique warns Wynand against Toohey, but he is too contemptuous of Toohey to heed her. Is Dominique correct in her assessment of Toohey's actual motives?
Toohey's overall purpose for writing his column is to control the people that can't grasp the negative aspects of being sheeple. He talks about how charity and pitying the poor are very important and noble acts in order to gain respect and force/power/persuasive rule. In society, his overall purpose is very much like his purpose in the paper. Toohey wants to control people and have a fighting force behind him. He wants everyone to think the same way and follow him around as if they were ducklings.
I think that Dominique has everything pretty much figured out, as she is one of the smartest characters. She might see things that others do not, including Wynand, but she might not understand that she is the only one that actually knows. Toohey told Dominique and Peter that he only wanted her to meet with Wynand in order to get the contract, but there is no way, even before they meet, that she believed that was the only reason.

5.) Why does Wynand fall deeply in love with Dominique? Do they share noble qualities in common? Have they made a similar mistake? Because of Wynand's undeniable virtues, do Dominique's feelings for him change?
Wynand falls for Dominique, in a sense, for the same reasons she fell for Roark. She is pure and clean, doing things for reasons that make sense to her, even if she can't explain why. They do indeed share some qualities in common, but not too many. They have both made mistakes, but Dominique had no choice about hers and Wynand doesn't see his as mistakes. I think that eventually, she starts to care about him, but she is not in love and the battle over her true love, Roark, is still in her mind.

6.) On her way to Reno to secure a divorce from Keating, Dominique stops in Clayton, Ohio to visit Roark. Why is Dominique willing to marry Roark only if he renounces architecture? What is the meaning of Roark's response that if he wanted to be cruel, he would accept her proposal? Aside from the obvious fact that she loves Roark, what does this visit show the reader about Dominique?
Dominique is only willing to marry her true love if he gives up architecture because she couldn't live to see him torn down with failure. She wants him to stop so people can't use him any longer. Roark told her that if he wanted to be cruel then he would accept because he knows everything that she is feeling, that she is thinking, that she is desiring, that she is battling with in her mind. He understands everything! Roark knows that she would do anything for him, that she...loves him. He understands that she is fighting herself to keep away from his perfection, because she would feel like she was corrupting him. He knows that she might be more miserable with him giving up his passion (because she actually started caring for him and his ambitions when she fell in love with him) than she would be with distracting herself from the pain of denying the urges to hunt him down and be with him forever.
This simply shows most readers that they were wrong while assuming that she forgot about Roark, but if you put me in the place of the reader, it shows that I understand everything she feels, including her battle and why she gets so lost in the moment when she thinks of Roark. To others, it would bring sense to many things, such as how she is destructing herself by being with Keeting, and now, Wynand. Her actions while she was visiting him reinforced everything that she ever felt for him, and it might have surprised some of the readers that didn't realize why and what exactly she had been trying to do.