Guy Montag
Guy Montag, the protagonist of the novel, belongs to an esoteric set of firemen whose task is to burn books. He is named after a company that manufactures paper, a reference to his connection with books. As a third-generation fireman, he is disenchanted with his job and wishes to quit. Though his wife and friends disobey the rules of civilization, his loyalty toward them is unflinching.
Montag fails in his attempt to make his wife and friends become conscious of their indoctrinated state. He is compelled to burn his house and books, and escapes by the skin of his teeth. Finally, he crosses a river to join a group of refugees who have made up their mind to educate the world after the War.
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Character Analysis:
Montag is a complicated person who is, sometimes, rash and, at other times, very guarded. That he is impulsive is shown by the reckless manner in which he recites poetry to Mildred’s guests, immolates Beatty (of course, in self-defense), and unsuspectingly shares a secret with his wife. Contrarily, he acts warily when he wants to. He postpones turning in Faber, taking time to look into his case. He is discreet with respect to Clarissa, and hides books for several years.
Montag maintains fidelity to his friends. He does not hand over Faber to the police. He immolates Beatty instead of leading him to Faber’s house. He is the only one to mourn the death of Clarissa. Though Mildred betrays him, he remains loyal to her. He appears to be a person of contradictions, but is reliable. He is prepared to do the right things, even if he has to pay a heavy price. He stops burning books on seeing Mrs. Blake immolate herself. He donates his life’s savings for the publication and propagation of books. His sensitivity stands out in a society characterized by indifference.
Throughout the novel, Montag is beset by opposing voices. On the one hand, he has to obey Beatty, his employer, and burn books without any regard for the significance of the libraries and the agony of the victims. On the other hand, Faber appeals to him to have a mind of his own. It is the tension between these opposing voices that give the novel its energy and instinct. Finally, Montag steals a book with the hope of ushering in a better world.
Mildred
Mildred resembles a zombie and is also cited by many readers as the most unlikeable character in the novel. While her spouse, Montag, is imbued with human qualities, she is at the other end of the spectrum, lifeless, cold, and vapid. She is actually the least lovable of all characters in the novel, essentially impersonating a senseless zombie. It is hard to imagine the plight of the children had she been a mother. She has a fixation to the illusory and virtual world of the “family,” and, quite befittingly, is buried with the “family” when the atom bomb destroys Civilization.
Character Analysis:
Montag’s wife is unlike him. Though she declares that she is satisfied with her life, the readers feel otherwise. In reality, she is uncomfortable with thinking. She fritters away all her time holding a cigarette butt between her fingers and entertaining friends as they all constantly watch meaningless programs on television (“I think of her hands but I don’t see them doing anything at all. They just hang there at her sides or they lay there on her lap or there’s a cigarette in them, but that’s all.” [156]). Beneath this facade, she appears as to be discontented in her life. She attempts suicide with an overdose of sedatives. Montag wonders about the last time she smiled. She is uninterested about happenings in her husband’s life. Looking at the mirror, she feels: “… it was such a wildly empty face, all by itself in the room touching nothing, starved and eating of itself.” (159)
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Mildred seems to have been carried away by Civilization and converted into a zombie. She is so insensitive that she hands over her husband to the authorities, leading to her house being burned along with her “family,”, the television. She dies on seeing the destruction her actions have brought about.
Captain Beatty
In his remarks about the novel, the author stated that he conceived Beatty, the chief fireman, as an obsessive person because he was afflicted with psychological problems. Beatty changed from a bibliophile to a “bibliophobe” because books did not help him solve his problems. He went on a book-burning spree, inventing justifications for it, and was highly successful.
Beatty’s actions are mysterious. He seems to have set up the Mechanical Hound to keep a tab on Montag after he became suspicious of his indifference to his occupation. He deliberately neglected intelligence he received about Montag’s love for books, making Montag feel he is not being watched. When Montag turned against Beatty, Beatty did not resist, making Montag believe that Beatty welcomed death. This adds up with Bradbury’s remark that Beatty was a bundle of contradictions, one who both yearned for and intensely disliked books.
Character Analysis:
Beatty is a mysterious person with an abnormal psychology. He is obsessed with burning books. Perhaps, his strange behavior can be traced to anxiety or a traumatic occurrence in the past. He chooses to burn books instead of addressing the problem. He seems to transfer his negative emotions onto books, extending it to the world of letters.
Beatty seems to have a complicated personality similar to Montag’s. He certainly is brilliant and well-read. Instead of putting his argumentative skills to better use, he uses it to prohibit thinking, contemplation and enlightenment. He makes burning of books his life’s mission. Strangely, he does nothing to save himself as he appears to be troubled, thus leaving Montag agonized:
Beatty wanted to die… How strange, strange, to want to die so much that you let a man walk around armed and then instead of shutting up and staying alive, you go on yelling at people and making fun of them until you get them mad (122)
It is doubtless that Beatty was a misfit.
Faber
Faber is a retired professor of English with a flair for poetry and innovation. He is a coward who hesitated to protest the Revolution when it had first happened. He regards Montag as capable of initiating a revolution and makes up his mind to sacrifice himself for Montag. He values technology more for its use in education than as a pastime.
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He gets killed during the war when he travels by the subway to meet Montag and others who dwell in the forest.
Character Analysis:
Faber and Montag share many qualities. Faber, too, exhibits firmness in some instances, and indecisiveness in others. He is not bold enough to oppose the revolution, even though doing so would have been foolish. He slogs relentlessly to devise the earbug. He helps Montag to escape and facilitates reintroduction of relapsed education. While Beatty pushes Montag toward destruction, Faber is his voice of conscience.
Clarissa McClellan
Clarissa is Montag’s neighbor. She is an unusual girl who shares a deep bond with her family. While her peers in Civilization indulge in philistine activities such as watching television and roaming around in Beetles, Clarissa likes to take long walks, absorbed in the beauty and mystery of nature. She shows her concern for Montag by enquiring about his job. She helps him broaden his horizon by sharing her observations of nature and describing how she spends time with her family. In his dramatic adaptation of the novel, Bradbury transformed her into one of the forest dwellers who ushers Montag to a better world. In the novel, a speeding car knocks her down when she is taking a walk, causing her premature death. In the play, however, Bradbury ensured she lived as one of the Book Lovers in the forest.
Mrs. Blake
Mrs. Blake is a rare lover of books who chooses to burn to death with her books rather than leaving her burning home. Her sacrifice has such a deep impact on Montag that he gives up burning books.
Mrs. Phelps
Mrs. Phelps is a woman who lives in a fool’s paradise. If her potential had been tapped, she would have been a valuable member of her society. For inexplicable reasons, Mathew Arnold’s poem Dover Beach has a greater influence on her than it does on Mrs. Bowles and Mildred. She loses her life when the atom bomb destroys Civilization.
Mrs. Bowles
Mrs. Bowles shares many qualities of Mildred. She is a typical product of the society in which she grew up, indulging in shallow banter. She cannot stand Montag reading the poem, labelling it as stupid. She was married thrice: divorced her first husband, reconciled with the suicide of the second, and believed the third blew his brains out. She has had many abortions, and puts up with her children only on their three monthly holidays from the boarding school.
Granger
Granger was a tramp, albeit an honored one, who authored many books. He took shelter in the forest, waiting for the right time to pass on his knowledge. He acquaints Montag with the aims and objectives of his group. He tells Montag that he was influenced by his grandfather, a sculptor, who was opposed to the status quo, and had made up his mind to live “as though he’d drop dead in ten seconds” (59).
Stoneman and Black
Stoneman and Black are firemen and colleagues of Montag, who find just a mention in the novel.
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