Cherryl is a different story. Unlike Rearden, she is still capable of being hurt by Taggart. Cherryl resembles Eddie Willers in a fundamental way. Both characters have the soul of someone like Dagny or Rearden, but they lack the intellect of such great producers. They understand and worship the achievements of genius, but they can't create Rearden Metal or build the John Galt Line themselves. Cherryl has the pure soul of a hero worshipper. She reveres man at his highest and best. She loves the very greatness that James Taggart seeks to destroy.
Because Taggart has no power to harm Rearden or Dagny, he channels his hatred toward the one person who admired him. With no capacity to defeat the heroes, Taggart takes his revenge by destroying a hero worshipper. Cherryl lacks the intellectual prowess required to defend herself against Taggart, which is the reason he married her. Cherryl is a helpless stand-in for Francisco, Dagny, Rearden, and all the other great people that Taggart hates. Because Taggart's motives are so monstrous, they've remained hidden from Cherryl until now. Before, her purity wouldn't allow her to imagine that such evil exists. When she finally realizes her husband's true nature — and that she is trapped in her marriage — she flees the apartment. However, Cherryl has no place to go because Taggart and his cronies rule the world as well as her home. When the social worker utters the same slogans of self-sacrifice that Taggart and the socialist rulers endorse, Cherryl feels trapped. She senses that she doesn't have a place to go, that the code of evil dominates the globe, and that she'd rather die than exist under such conditions. James Taggart has succeeded in his quest to lash out at those whom he knows to be good.
