Fahrenheit 451 Beatty demonstrates vast antagonistic behavior when he provokes Montag and uses his literary knowledge in his arguments against the existence of books in society. Towards the end of the novel, after Montag kills Beatty. Rather than fighting Beatty simply accepts his death. Montag later realizes that Beatty wanted to die, revealing a tremendous agony in life. Beatty is a complex character, full of contradictions. He burns books however; he has an immense comprehension of poetry. Although Beatty was his friend and captain, he appears to be an enemy of Montag due to his hatred towards books. Beatty calls books “treacherous weapons”, yet he uses his own knowledge about books to manipulate Montag cruelly.
Beatty is the fire chief and everyone is feared by him. Beatty tries to stop Montag on going down the road of believing books are not a bad thing, he himself has gone down that road and does not believe it is one worth traveling. Shortly after Montag kills Beatty he realizes that he wanted to die, all this time he wanted to be a character of his own book and after he died he finally was. Beatty had wished he could forget his past life and be happy like everyone else. Captain Beatty did not feel that books provided him with enough information about life he felt as if all the pages in the book were blank. He believes that books only lead to confusion and thought, which should be avoided at all
Suprisingly, he knows a lot about books. He spends a lot of time quoting from books. Montag and Beatty are foil characters because of their different views as well. He manipulates Montag into going against what he wants to believe in. However, at the same time, makes Montag want more knowledge. Beatty says to Montag, “Each man, the image of every other, then all are happy.” (58). This quote is saying all people need to be made equal. This is a contrast between Montag and Beatty because Montag becomes free and realizes all people should have their own minds. This a strong point tthat describes the differences between Montag and Beatty. Beatty and Montag are both very knowledgeable, but all in all, they have different views that leave one satisfied and the other in
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
For example on pages 102-104, Beatty uses many quotes to confuse Montag. Beatty quotes Samuel Johnson saying, “He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty” (Page 103). He doesn’t want Montag to question the Firemen, and or do anything rash. Beatty also quotes Shakespeare when he sees that Montag will kill him. On Page 113 he says, “There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, for I am arm’d so strong in honesty that the pass by me as an idle wind,which I respect not!”. This quote is from Julius Caesar, in which Brutus is speaking to Cassius about threats. Beatty is so secure in his belief that the government should restrict books, that he would not be afraid to die for it. Montag sees this, and kills Beatty. The allusions to Shakespeare in the novel are important because many regard Shakespeare to be the greatest writer of all time, and it is fitting that their government would want to burn his
One thing that is crucial to understanding the main character, Guy Montag, is that he doesn’t wish pain on those who don't deserve it. In this passage where Montag is talking about his wife he says that he won’t feel sad if she dies, but he still does not want her to die in the bombing. Even though she was an awful wife who put Guy through hell, he does not want her to be in pain. The fact that he was hurting a woman who had never done anything wrong but own a book is the turning point for Montag’s change of opinions about books. If this woman had not felt strongly enough about her books to die with them, then Montag wouldn’t have believed that they had valuable information in them.Without this quality, Montag would not have killed Beatty, and he would have died in the bombing. In summary, Guy Montag would not hurt anyone who he didn’t think deserved it. Because of this quality he is alive today.
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
Another influencing character is Beatty, his boss and chief of police who is very knowledgeable. He finds out that Montag has books in his possession and that is when the start of the climax. Beatty is an
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
Before Captain Beatty was killed, he was taunting Montag while Montag was holding a flamethrower, but did not have anything to defend himself with. Beatty knew Montag would kill him if he kept taunting Montag, so he kept on until it finally happened. Throughout the novel, Beatty seemed to be the bad guy who represented the evil side of society, but this reveals otherwise. Montag was doing what Beatty could not by defying society’s law against books. When Montag burned his own house down, that seemed to put Captain Beatty over the edge and accept the fact that Beatty was a coward who executed actions that he did not agree with. An additional important character in the novel is Professor Faber. Faber serves as a mentor to Montag in the book. He does not agree with the established rules of society, yet never personally takes action throughout the book. He describes this lifestyle in a conversation with Montag: “I’m one of the innocents who could have spoken up and out when no one would listen to the ‘guilty,’ but I did not speak and thus became guilty myself” (Bradbury 78). Faber looks back with regret on his earlier life when the ban on books began. He did not want to take action due to the fear that persecution would fall upon himself. Those experiences are what make Faber a good mentor to Montag; Faber has learned from them and is glad that Montag is not scared to do what Faber could not.
Throughout the book, there are people who have tried to dissuade Montag from breaking the rules. A few of these people include Captain Beatty, Stoneman, and Black. Captain Beatty used his own knowledge of books and
Later Captain Beatty, Montag’s captain, stops by Montag’s house to talk to him. While Beatty is there Montag just lies in bed trying to conceal one of the books he took from the house
Montag is a conformist in the totalitarian society in which he lives. He, in the beginning of the story, loves his job. However, he is manipulated repeatedly by his nemesis, Captain Beatty. Captain Beatty is a manipulator who is expert in being able to aggravate Montag into a verbal duel that is basically one-sided. Montag and Captain Beatty seem to have a relationship where the boss is always trying to pin an untruth onto one of his employees. Montag becomes discontented at work. He becomes complacent by going through the motions by not really concentrating on the job at hand.
1. Montag gives the books to beatty, while beatty tells him qoutes from the books to confuse him.
“Way to draw an audience Montag. What will you do now?” Beatty taunted. “Recite some more poetry? You’re only going to get yourself killed.”