Dominique's marriage to Peter Keating is one of deliberate
self-torture. She has been shown by the public time and time again that they will reject
Roark, her ideal man, and embrace Keating, a man she views as the worst society can
offer. In marrying him, she is making a conscious effort to reject her own ideals and
live subordinately in the world that she is given by collective opinion. Earlier, she
rejects Keating outright:
"Peter, if I ever wanted
to punish myself for something terrible, if I ever want to punish myself disgustingly --
I'll marry you."
(Rand, The Fountainhead, Google
Books)
Dominique has a history of punishing
herself through her reactions to art and literature; at one point, she purchases a
statue that she finds beautiful and destroys it so it won't be tainted by the world
around it. After meeting and sleeping with Roark, she believes that there is a chance
the world could accept him, but after the public rejects his church -- a church that
implicitly worships Man instead of God, and features a statue of Dominique nude -- she
suffers a deep personal setback. Her marriage to Keating is a personal response: "If
society wants me to accept mediocrity, I will accept the most mediocre person I can
find." Keating does not understand, and marries her for the social status it affords
him.
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