Mildred's Change Analysis

Montag feels at the begining of the novel that the communication is greatly lacking in society. People are becoming very ignorant and turning reallife realationships aside. They now turn to their "tv families". One victim of neglecting real life realtionships is Mildred, Montag's wife. Montag truley hates this. "Nobody listens any more. I can't talk to the walls because they're yelling at me. I can't talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it'll make sense. And I want you to teach me to understand what I read." (2.125). Montag hopes that his wife and him can rejoin their connection through the books, but is sadly wrong and must find some one else, Faber.

Mildred was blocking out her loneliness and negative feelings deep inside her so she had become completely numb, which was affecting her humanity. Humans can only solve a problem that they have if they confront in and try to make a change, and when they hide from it or ignore it, it will never do any good. Nothing will change, but all those bad feelings just keep getting bottled up deep inside. Mildred even had her seashells in her ears when she was in Montag’s dreams, which shows how torn he was between the societies “perfect citizen” or a more satisfactory way of living. “When they stepped out of the car, she had the seashells stuffed in her ears. Silence. Only the wind blowing softly. “Mildred.” He stirred in bed. He reached over and pulled the tiny musical insect out of her ear. “Mildred. Mildred?” (Bradbury 43). Mildred always had music blasting in her ears, and she never had time to think about her decisions or her life in peace and silence. She never realized that she is lonely, she keeped her feelings cooped up inside herself, some so far down that she did not realize that they were there. In the real world, there are similar reasons why someone might be advised to stay away from listening

In regards to why Mildred did not know or acknowledge the disconnect between her and Montag, the most influential one is her reliance to technology. An example of Mildred’s dependency to technology is the quote “And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind. The room was indeed empty. Every night the waves came in and bore her off on their great tides of sound, floating her, wide-eyed, toward morning. There had been no night in the last two years that Mildred had not swum that sea, had not gladly gone down in it for the third time.”

Montag’s Wife, Mildred, is a negative influence on him, trying to push him away emotionally and physically. She does not know who she really is and lives in an illusionary world with her obsession of television shows and believing they are real. He is so confused because she tries to ignore it ever happened thinking about all the bad things; “fire, sleeping tablets, men disposable tissue, coattails, blow, wad, flush...Rain. The storm. The uncle laughing...The whole world pouring down..." (19). After this incident he looks at Mildred in a different light and is someone who he can’t relate to. Another way she separates herself from Montag is through her "family", which is a television show. Montag constantly asks Millie “[if that] family loves [her]… love [her] with all their heart and soul" (83). Her world isn’t based in reality; they are clearly on different paths. Hers is one of illusion and his is becoming that of a totally self-aware person. She blocks everything and everyone out that is around her and lives within the show. Mildred opens Montag 's eyes to the real world and shows him that most people are uncaring and narcissistic.

Comment: This made Montag realize how separated Mildred is from the outside world. She is so caught up in her shows all day, everyday, that she has no idea what is really happening in reality.

Mildred, even though was someone that lacked excitement and interesting things, still was one of the biggest and most influential characters in the entire novel. Her purpose was not to only show the reader how a normal citizen would act and think, but to make them understand how someone could do such tremendous things after being brainwashed and believed to be someone that had no potential or reason in life.

The word ‘family’ reveals how Mildred relies on technology like a real family instead of caring and being warm-hearted towards her husband, who is her actual family. In addition, it represents Mildred’s obsession towards the parlor. The word ‘sick’ shows that Montag needs care from someone and Mildred is not helping him, by not even decreasing the volume for a sick husband who is continually asking her to turn it off, indicates that Mildred has no care for her husband. Mildred’s subsequent reliance on technology makes her inseparable from it, trying to stay with technology all the time and not caring what happens to others hence making her selfish. Mildred’s egocentric behaviour is also illustrated when she puts the alarm when Montag brings the books to home and reads them in a society where they do not allow books. “She ran past with her body stiff, her face floured with powder, her mouth gone, without lipstick. ‘Mildred you didn’t put in the alarm!’ She shoved in the valise in the waiting beetle, climbed in and sat mumbling, ‘Poor family, poor family, oh everything gone, everything gone, everything gone now…’”(114). Mildred turned in Montag to the firehouse for having books. Mildred knew the consequences of what will happen when she puts in the alarm. Everything in the house will be destroyed along with the parlors that she loves. Also, Montag is going to be arrested for possessing books but Mildred still decides to report Montag because she wants her

Also, why they didn 't send professional help instead of people (who we don 't know if they were qualified) with machines to essentially replace almost all the inner liquids of the body with new (from a stranger) liquids. Again, the question of why Mildred was trying to kill herself? I think this is one of the reasons why Montag is unhappy with life.

Mildred surrenders Montag to authorities because she does not love him. Mildred has gone through her life finding comfort in tv’s and podcast instead of family and herself. She does not know what true love is because she does not know how to love. In the beginning of the book

Montag desperately tries to convince Mildred that books would be the start to end their internal suffering, but she is unwilling to alter her view on her lifestyle. He tries to show her that how they are currently living is not good for either of them. When Montag is convincing Mildred, Mildred’s inability to realize the positive change books would have on her causes her and Montag’s relationship to end. “See what you’re doing? You’ll ruin us!

“That’s awful! ...Why should I read? What for?”(Bradbury, 73) Mildred hates the fact that her house and her ‘family’ would burn down if Beatty and the other firemen found out about Montag and his books. Mildred doesn’t understand why Montag wants to reason with her and what he finds so special in books. Mildred is a selfish woman who cares only about herself and her friends. As long as nothing happened to her ‘family’, she’d be fine.

Her bland, limited and vacant persona shows she is the epitome of someone in dystopia. Her physical appearance also alludes to this. She was described as having abnormally pale skin and chemically fried hair- this is symbolizing the twisted beauty standards that were placed on women such as her in this society. As horrible as it sounds, Mildred, with her obsession and addiction to the simplistic, electronic-based lifestyle, closely resembles the lifestyles of many people in the present-day. Because of all this, she and Montag were completely incompatible. Unsurprisingly, Mildred betrays her husband in “Burning Bright.” She does this by reporting him and his stash of illegal books, which resulted in Montag being forced to burn his house to the ground. In this scene, Mildred symbolizes the fear of the demanding government. She feared severe consequences, just as anyone in the society would. This shows how strong of a grasp the horrible government has over its people.

In conclusion, Montag and Mildred is very different in not only one way it is way more than just one

Firstly, before one can understand how Mildred is misinterpreted, common misunderstandings have to be debunked. Because a single opinion of Mildred has become accepted as fact, any available information about her offers a one-sided, unflattering view, leaving little space for different interpretations. While popular reference sites often at least suggest that Mildred might not be entirely two-dimensional, they are closed to further exploration. Shmoop is the best example of this, referring to Mildred as “The epitome of the status-quo” (Shmoop Editorial Team) and “kind-of dumb” (Shmoop Editorial Team). These claims are easy to disprove. Despite her “stupidity”, when Montag goes off on a tangent that nearly exposes his book-harbouring to several guests, Mildred plans the same cover-up as Faber (a respected professor), except full seconds faster. This is exhibited in the following quote:

In life, we should be separated from some things, but the television "family" replaces the actual family. The screen numbs and extinguishes the real sin and evil in our lives. Mildred was introduced to the sin in the world which almost made her give up her life. Mildred has a "wall" built up between her and her husband, Montag. It almost seems like she was married to the television set. The couple, do not act as a unit; they live separate lives.