Roark's triumph and Toohey's failure — the potency of the good and the impotence of the evil — explain another point in the story: the nature of Dominique's error. Dominique, for all her brilliance and idealism, is tormented by her pessimism — by her belief that the good and the noble have no chance in a corrupt world. While still young, Dominique sees her father wine and dine his way to the top of his profession, even though he is a mediocre architect. Dominique realizes that Henry Cameron is the world's greatest designer but sees that he is a commercial failure. In her twenties, Dominique finds Peter Keating on the fast track to success and Howard Roark consigned to a granite quarry. She observes that Ellsworth Toohey, the most evil creature imaginable, is hailed as a moral saint by millions of people. Her conclusion is that evil is a dominant force in man's life; that the good are weak and ultimately doomed. Ayn Rand terms such pessimism the malevolent universe premise. Its optimistic contrary, held by Roark, that the world is open to the achievement of values by the good, she calls the benevolent universe premise.
Dominique's view is mistaken, though given her experiences, understandable. The events of the story clearly dramatize Ayn Rand's benevolent universe theory. Dominique, an honest and acute observer, witnesses Roark's steady, if tortuous climb, Toohey's inability to reach either of his goals, Keating's decline and eventual exposure, Wynand's inability to succeed by the method of pandering — and she changes her mind. An early note of Dominique's transition is her warning to Wynand regarding Toohey. This warning signals more than a growing respect for Wynand's virtues; it indicates her shifting view regarding the world's moral nature. She no longer believes that the world deserves Toohey. She now sees that the world is better than that — and that it deserves better than the Fascist/Communist dictatorship Toohey seeks to impose. Her willingness to help Roark dynamite Cortlandt, though the action could well bring him imprisonment, shows her final liberation from the grip of her malevolent premise. Before the trial, Dominique says, "Howard . . . willingly, completely, and always . . . without reservations, without fear of anything they can do to you or me. . . . Howard, if you win the trial — even that won't matter too much. You've won long ago. . . ." Dominique understands that, regardless of social rejection, it is the independent thinkers like Roark who understand nature's laws, who make advances and who carry mankind forward. He is the creative man who gives life its meaning; he is the one who recognizes and lives up to man's highest potential. She now understands to whom the earth belongs — and it is to the creators, not the parasites; to the virtuous, not the guilty.
