The Fountainhead

Toohey recognizes that marriage to Keating has left Dominique untouched and unchanged. Because she is one of the few to recognize Toohey's true nature, she is a dangerous enemy. Toohey seeks to eradicate Dominique's hero worship and speculates that becoming Wynand's mistress may serve that purpose. Toohey hopes that life as Wynand's mistress — surrounded by the opulent splendor that is the fruit of Wynand's pandering — will make Dominique cynical; that she will renounce her commitment to integrity and heroism and surrender to the world's corruption in weary resignation. Toohey has a vested interest in the destruction, or at least the anesthetizing, of Dominique's devotion to the nobility of man. As long as she still loves man at his highest and best, she may choose to actively oppose Toohey's attempt to enslave mankind; she might decide to employ her intellect and talent as weapons in a battle against Toohey. This is a danger that Toohey fervently wishes to avoid. But important as this is, it is Toohey's minor reason for scheming to bring Dominique and Wynand together. His primary purpose is a desire to distract Wynand's attention from The Banner. As part of his ongoing campaign to eliminate any possibility of success for independent men, Toohey seeks to elevate a series of unthinking followers to positions of cultural eminence. His belief is that if society can be convinced that a fraudulent mediocrity like Keating or Gus Webb is a great architect, then society will be unable to comprehend or appreciate the work of a true genius like Roark. To this end, Toohey seeks to promote Lois Cook. If society accepts Cook as a great writer, then it becomes even more difficult for a Roark-like author to be recognized. Toohey has gotten his minions on The Banner to plug her book, The Gallant Gallstone, at every opportunity. Despite the subtlety of Toohey's orchestration, Wynand recognizes it and has this endorsement stopped. Wynand, as he puts it, does not allow people to amuse themselves on his paper. Toohey, who seeks to control editorial policy on the paper, is faced with a very smart and very tough adversary. Because Wynand is a notorious womanizer, and Dominique is not merely beautiful, but even more, shares his love of the exalted, Toohey hopes that involvement with Dominique will leave him so smitten that his attention to the details of his work will slacken. So Toohey brings Dominique into Wynand's life.