The Relationship between Francisco d’Anconia and Dagny Taggart (Carlye Nealon)

As I continued to read Atlas Shrugged, I learned much more about the characters that were presented earlier in the story.  The two characters that I was most interested in were Francisco d’Anconia and Dagny Taggart. At first Francisco and Dagny were just childhood friends, but I could tell that they were going to grow into something else by the way they acted with each other.  The line, “When she raced down to hill to meet Francisco d’Anconia, it was a release from prison,” shows how Dagny felt whenever she was around Francisco (page 90). We also learn that Francisco is the one who taught Dagny to be the businesswoman that she is today.  He told her, “Dagny, there’s nothing of any importance in life- except how well you do your work.  Nothing.  Only that.  Whatever else you are, will come fro that.  It’s the only measure of human value,” (page 98).  I think if Francisco never told Dagny all of this she would not be the kind of woman that she is.  He changed her into an independent woman who can do things on her own.  We do not find out until chapter 5 that they had a much greater connection than we thought that they had before and that they were actually lovers.  Dagny liked what she had with Francisco, but it scared her at the same time.  I did not like the relationship between Dagny and Francisco because I did not like how Francisco treated her.  He would just leave and come back and the relationship did not seem serious.  However, even though I did not like the romantic relationship between Dagny and Francisco, I do think that Francisco made Dagny into the woman who can be a leader during a time when people thought that women were inferior to men.