Table of Contents
Guy Montag
Guy Montag is a protagonist, a loyal citizen who doubts the way of his life and ends up as a criminal and exile. He is thirty years old, a fireman in third generation and perfectly fit for his job, actually enjoying it for ten years – it’s somehow balances his unhappy marriage with Mildred. A year or two ago he started to doubt the existing order of things and became curious about reading forbidden books, which means all non-contemporary literature. His doubts and his inability to share them with anybody else start a controversy in his mind that eventually leads to the complete ruination of his marriage, house and life.
Captain Beatty
Malicious chief fireman, always surrounded by thunderclouds of smoke, is Montag’s nemesis. He uses his profound knowledge and intuition for manipulating his subordinates and reaching his goals. Once an enthusiastic reader, he hates books for diversity of opinions and thoughts represented here and is passionate in maintaining the existing way of life. He is a clever speechmaker, so it’s easy for him to confuse the opponent and persuade him to follow the proper line of life, thoughts and behavior. His only mistake was overestimating of his power and the degree of Montag’s despair, and as the result the powerful captain Beatty is burned alive by his stubborn subordinate.
Mildred Montag
Protagonist’s wife is an embodiment of shallowness, materialism and addictiveness. She is addicted to her sleeping pills, kitchen gadgets, TV-walls and endless soap operas, speed driving and radio ear-plugs. She has learned lip-reading and speaks to her husband in short sentences, never actually hearing him. Even her appearance is the essence of the artificial chemical beauty: slim due to endless diets, unnaturally white, always restless. Her hair looks like straw, burned by chemicals. Mildred forgets everything, starting from aspirin and the number of taken pills and to more significant things, such as the place and time of her first meeting with her husband. When she realizes it, she only laughs, but her fear and restlessness are obvious. Bubble-headed as she is shown, deep inside she realizes that something is very wrong – and goes to take more pills.
Mrs. Ann Bowels and Mrs. Clara Phelps
Mildred’s friends are shown in order to empathize the emptiness and anti-intellectualism of the depicted hedonistic society. They find their pleasure in shallow small talks and martini, and are negligent to their family relations. Montag’s recital of Dower Beach seems to strike a chord in Mrs. Phelps, but she bursts into hysteric and Mrs. Bowels declares that she would never come to his house again. These friends were the first to call a firehouse about books that Montag kept.
Clarisse McClellan
She is seventeen and visits psychiatrist, because everybody except for her family perceives her as unsociable. The point is that she is not interested in accepted forms of socializing. She is curious, observant and loves to find out how and why things are working. Delightfully human, a perfect example of idealistic characters, she turns the Montag’s world inside out, merely by showing him that happy families still exist, a thoughtful conversation is possible, and rain drops are delicious. They see each other for seven days and this is enough to start Montag’s soul-searching and life questioning. After a week of these meetings Clarisse, who enjoys walking, is hit by car and dies. Montag learns about it only four days later, when Mildred casually mentions this fact.
Professor Faber
Old English professor, scared by his own rebelliousness. Montag met him a year ago and remembers about his existence while facing the problem of book texts understanding. Faber is a classic example of protagonist’s tutor, being experienced in hiding his intentions and informed about exiles. After Montag’s plea for help he is determined to do everything possible, but still is cautious enough. This cautiousness can be confused with cowardice, but it was Faber’s cold mind that helped Montag to escape and find exiles in countryside. His voice in radio ear-plug serve as Montag’s consciousness and helps him to confront Captain Beatty for the last time.
Granger
Calm and intelligent, Granger is a completely opposite to malicious Captain Beatty. He is a leader of bunch of exiles, a man well aware of contemporary life, technology, inventions and organization of “memory of humankind”. Benevolent, he brings a kind of peace of mind to Montag. Giving the protagonist the hope for future restoration of healthy literate society, he is often associated with Moses, leading his people to unknown promised land and protecting them to possible degree.
Mechanical Hound
The Hound represents government control and manipulation of technology, thus being inevitably associated with Furies from Greek mythology. An eight-legged robotic dog with a needle-tooth for procaine or morphine injection, it’s a perfect hunting and killing machine. This mechanical enforcer also serves as an omen of doom for Montag when, programmed by Beatty, it’s stalking his house at night, revealing its presence by strange noises and smell of blue electricity.