"Lillian moved forward to meet her, studying her with curiosity. They had met before, on infrequent occasions, and she found it strange to see Dagny Taggart wearing an evening gown. It was a black dress......The black dress seemed excessively revealing--because it was astonishing to discover that the lines of her shoulder were fragile and beautiful, and that the diamond band on the wrist of her naked arm gave her the most feminine of all aspects: the look of being chained."
Does this statement actually say more about Lillian Rearden than about Dagny? It is Lillian who thinks that a woman's feminity is defined as being a piece of property. Without question Ayn Rand had some sort of domination fetish going on.....
Although, truth be told, Ayn Rand is a bit bi-polar in her feminism. Why did Dagny have to be so beautiful? I guess that is the case with her mega-producer leading men: they are all gorgeous, as well.
So, why does Hank completely give Dagny the cold shoulder after the bracelet exchange? Does he realize that he is in love with her and must hide it at all costs? Or has he admitted it to himself?
Dagny is Ayn, or at least the way Ayn would have liked to be.
In real life, Ayn Rand was a short and rather dumpy woman. Her brainpower was amazing, and I think she looked at herself in a mirror and saw Dagny. Or at least wanted to see Dagny.
If you go back to last week's thread and watch Rand with Mike Wallace and Phil Donahue, it's a wonderful thing to behold. I'm hoping they both live just long enough to eat their words.
Rearden considers himself to be guilt-ridden because of his commitment to Lillian, so it is a self-imposed torture that he is playing out. He is definitely in love with Dagny, but he has exiled himself because he continues to assume his place of guilt under the looters' standards.