Character Analysis of Captain Beatty (Fahrenheit 451)

Montag's desire to acquire knowledge through books is dealt with by the rulers is that Montag’s boss, Beatty, says it was normal for a fireman to go through these phases of fascination of what books have to offer. Beatty tells Montag,” What traitors books can be! You think they’re backing you up, and then they turn on you. Others can use them, too, and there you are, lost in the middle of the moor, in a great welter of nouns and verbs and adjectives.” But, Beatty is missing the point on how valuable books can be. So Beatty tells Montag to read through all of the books Montag has stashed to see if the books contain anything worthwhile, then the next day turn them in to be burned.

Beatty was making Montag realize, “The incredible books that looked so silly and really not worth bothering with, for these were nothing but black type and yellow paper and raveled binding” (Bradbury 109). After Beatty had brought Montag and the rest of the station to Montag's house to ruin Montag’s plan and burn the books he had hidden. Montag has to decide what to do before Beatty burns his house down and arrest him. Beatty was making Montag realize what he had really done by burning his house down with all of the books that Montag had concealed. Fire gives Beatty the power to make him feel like he can make people do what he wants and helps him have better control over situations.

Bradbury also serves to warn us of the danger of ignorance in this futuristic dystopia. This again is reflective of the Nazi book burnings and the idea of people leaving behind knowledge and becoming ‘blissfully’ ignorant of the past. In Fahrenheit 451 the fireman's responsibility is to destroy knowledge and promote ignorance in order to ensure equality. Ignorance, however, promotes suicide, poor decisions, and empty lives. When Beatty discovers Montag's hidden collection of books, he explains that all firemen become curious of books, and may have time to explore them for a short time before disposing of them. He then tells Montag about the state of the world: people are made

Towards the end of the passage, Montag threatens Beatty with a fire hose, prompting a lengthy dialogue from Beatty. Beatty responds to Montag’s threats with an allusion to Shakespeare, saying, “‘There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, for I am arm’d so strong in honesty that they pass by me as an idle wind, which I respect not!’ How’s that?” Beatty’s ease and familiarity with Shakespeare confirm that Beatty has definitely read books, and that he is an intelligent man has some notion of what books have held deep within their pages. In this way, Beatty is similar to Montag, he is another book burner that is knowledgeable about literature. What separates the two is that Beatty is simply unable to diverge from societal norms, and his stubbornness takes over and refuses to admit the worth of books. This differs greatly from Montag, who is finally starting to rebel against society. In this same scene, Beatty also taunts Montag when the fire hose is pointed at him, urging Montag to, “Go ahead now, you second-hand litterateur, pull the trigger.” While this may have just been Beatty egging Montag on, later on Beatty’s lack of resistance seems to suggest that Beatty really didn’t care whether or not he died. Moments before his death, Beatty simply says, “‘Hand it over, Guy,” and then proceeds to smile as he knows he is about to be burnt. Through dialogue, Bradbury is able to reveal information about Beatty’s background and knowledge of books, as well as his

Of all literary works regarding dystopian societies, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is perhaps one of the most bluntly shocking, insightful, and relatable of them. Set in a United States of the future, this novel contains a government that has banned books and a society that constantly watches television. However, Guy Montag, a fireman (one who burns books as opposed to actually putting out fires) discovers books and a spark of desire for knowledge is ignited within him. Unfortunately his boss, the belligerent Captain Beatty, catches on to his newfound thirst for literature. A man of great duplicity, Beatty sets up Montag to ultimately have his home destroyed and to be expulsed from the city. On the other hand, Beatty is a much rounder

Beatty supports this by saying since he has read some himself, he can affirm that they are worthless and contradictory. Through this experience, Montag has a new understanding of his profession. Although he is still skeptical, he knows more than he did before, and most importantly, Beatty has started to get Montag’s mind thinking. An important quote from this conversation is, “We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal. . . . A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it.” This is when Beatty is ‘confiding’ in Montag, making him finally piece together what he has been doing all of these years as a fireman. He finally can begin to comprehend the society he is in, and what measures the government has taken to subdue the population. Later on in the book, Beatty and Montag face each other once more. After Montag is brought to his own house and told to burn it down, and facing no escape due to the hound, he burns it down. After burning down his own home, Beatty tells him he is under arrest, and begins to provoke him. As Beatty clearly intended, Montag kills him, turning him into a charred corpse. The fact that he died by fire, and knowingly chose to die by the flamethrower is interesting. Nevertheless, this is the point of no return for Montag, knowing that he did what he had to do, and that he was now an enemy of the state. At this point, Guy

Beatty uses his knowledge to attack Montag after the fireman has made the decision to join the radicals and to oppose the burning of books. Montag returns to the fire station in order to surrender a book, creating the illusion of conforming to Beatty’s expectations. Before Montag has an opportunity to speak Beatty begins to confound him with contradictory statements from

Being a fireman, Montag is often times seen surrounded by light; this profession also creates a dueling identity- a man that sees the truth and the façade he must create to disguise him when he is working. Subsequently, Montag is shown continually putting himself at risk to practice what he believes, as he knows that being found out would mean his death. The English professor Faber recognizes Montag as a beacon of hope, he guides Montag and acts a mentor much like God to Jesus. The fire captain Beatty, a well-read and charismatic man, tries to tempt Montag away from books and forces him to question his beliefs. “Hold steady. Don’t let the torrent of melancholy and drear philosophy drown our world. We depend on you. I don’t think you realize how important you are, we are, to our happy world as it stands now” (Bradbury 59), the speech Beatty gave almost caused Montag to lose hope, this acts as evidence of his persuasive abilities and supports him being a Devil-like

Although Beatty decides to reject what he learned when given the opportunity to read books, Beatty is unhappy with his life as a fireman and persuades Montag to kill him by using pathos as shown through his words and actions. Firstly, Beatty orders Montag to burn Montag’s own house, creating anger and sadness within Montag. Messing with Montag’s emotions makes it a pathos appeal. This action alone does not make Montag kill Beatty, but it does push to that goal. In addition, Beatty continues to irritate Montag by insulting him, saying “It was the act of a silly, damn snob” (Bradbury 118). Even though Montag was acting like a snob, or a stuck-up individual, when he read the “Dover Beach” poem to Mildred and her friends, Beatty calling Montag

Finally, throughout the novel Bradbury presents a conflict between ignorance and understanding. The general society is being numbed into believing that knowledge makes people disagree with each other and unhappy. To prevent people from reading and gaining knowledge, the firemen burn all books. By committing these actions, they are promoting sameness and ignorance, to supposedly maintain happiness among society. Captain Beatty explains the history of firemen to Montag, speaking of their society’s view of equality. “We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal . . . A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind.” (Bradbury, page 58) Captain Beatty is hinting that books encourage people to question authority and think about why things are done the way they are

(STEWE-1) Montag comes to a conclusion that what he does and his own job are wrong,”Montag only said, We never burned right, and then he was a shrieking blaze”(113). This symbolizes that Montag knows they never used fire the right way, they used it to burn when it should be used for something else. Causing Montag to react by killing Beatty. (STEWE-2) While Montag is trying to escape his society. “Watch for a man running… watch for the running man… watch for a man alone on foot, … watch. Yes, he thought where am I running”(118). While running away Montag commits a crime towards the society by putting a book in a fireman’s house and calling in the alarm, just like him and Faber had set up. “And now since you’re a fireman’s wife, it’s your house and your turn, He hid the books in the kitchen and moved from the house again to the alley”(123). Montag has started to commit crimes against the state and run away. (SIP-B) Montag fully rebels against his society and escapes it. (STEWE-1) Furthermore while on the run Montag drops in on Faber to explain to him what is going on, Faber suggests to Montag to go to the river. “One of the rare few times he discovered that somewhere behind behind the seven veils of unreality, beyond the walls of parlors and beyond the tin most of the city”(135). Montag now realizes there is more to everything beyond the robotic

Montag to burn his houseand that he is under arrest afterwards which leads to the murder

Montag was first shown as a person who loves to burn book but, after Montag saw the death of the lady and the books he realizes, “...There must be something in books, things we can’t, to make a woman stay in a burning house…”(Bradbury 48) the government is hiding what books are trying to show us and that is what he’s realizing. He now knows that the truth lies in the book and we’re getting false information, and that is what Bradbury is trying to show us. Montag also knows that firemen were different back then and not what the government is actually showing us. Before the death of the lady he tells Beatty, “Didn’t firemen prevent fires rather than stoke them up and get them going”(Bradbury 31) he finds out from Clarisse the truth of firemen and not what the government is telling us when Beatty reads, “...First Firemen:Benjamin Franklin”(Bradbury 32) to show that firemen were book burners since the beginning in 1790 but. In reality it was to water down

When Montag failed to show up for work, his fire chief, Beatty, paid a visit to him. Beatty explained that "it's normal for a fireman to go through a phase of wondering what books have to offer," he also explained how books came to be banned in the first place. Beatty told Montag to take about twenty-four hours to see if his stolen books contained anything meaningful and then to turn them in for incineration. Montag began a lengthy and frantic night of reading.

Guy Montag is the protagonist and central character of the book, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury that transforms from a conformist in a totalitarian society to rebuilding a society that reads books. Montag fits the cliché description of a good-looking male with “black hair, black brows…fiery face, and…blue-steel shaved but unshaved look.” (Bradbury, 33)  For the past eight years he has burned books. He is a 3rd generation firefighter, who in the beginning of the story, loves his job, which consists of burning the homes of people who perform criminal acts of reading and keeping books in their homes. By understanding Montag’s relationships, discontentment, and future, one can begin to understand the complexities of Guy Montag.