451 Characters Flashcards
Guy Montag
Montag is this futuristic novel’s central character and protagonist, a so-called “fireman”.. As the narrative begins, he is portrayed as finding a similar, sadistic, socially and morally righteous pleasure in what he does, and then as having both that pleasure and that righteousness disturbed by an encounter with the mysterious, thoughtful, questioning Clarisse. As the narrative continues, however, it reveals that Montag has been troubled by his own questions about who he is, what he does, and why he does it for some time before the novel begins, a situation made evident by the fact that he has been collecting banned books for some time.
As the narrative progresses further, Montag questions himself, his situation, his world, and the societal conventions that shaped them all. As a result, he flees everything that defined his life to that point, starting on the road towards rebellion, not so much actively fighting as actively resisting the pervasive and alluring, but still somewhat insane, influences of those soul-and-identity destroying conventions (conventions embodied and manifested in his wife Mildred and his captain).
All in all, the novel portrays Montag as a reactive protagonist, one who undergoes a journey of transformation in response to outside influences and circumstances. Granted, he has an inner desire, an inner questioning, that fuels his actions and choices throughout that journey. There is also the sense, however, that without the triggers he encounters (i.e., the Bible, the martyrdom of the old woman) he would have remained as he was, troubled and questioning but ultimately inactive. He is somewhat more aware than most of the people living (functioning?) within the socio-cultural-moral climate of the time, but without the triggers he would, in all likelihood, remained as docile and accepting as they. In short, while the world in which Montag lives is a literary warning against what humanity could turn itself into, Montag, in his questioning and resistance to societal pressures and expectations, is an exhortation to be aware, a call if not to action, at the very least to awareness and questioning.
Firemen
In the world of “Fahrenheit 451”, firemen no longer put out fires, but set them. Houses have been fireproofed, so there is no need for the former sort of fireman. Instead, firemen are, as Captain Beatty reveals to Montag, entrusted with the responsibility of burning that which has the potential to disrupt the mindlessly happily, or happily mindless, status quo - books, and the houses in which they are kept. They are a force of destruction, rather than a force of salvation.
Captain Beatty
Beatty is the captain of the squad of firemen to which Montag belongs. He is, as mentioned above, a mouthpiece for and embodiment/manifestation of the thought- denying, soul-denying, individuality-denying rules of the society of the time. At first glance he appears reasonable and thoughtful, but as tensions between what Montag does and what he believes/understands rise, Beatty’s reactions become more aggressive, eventually appearing insane. Aand yet, as Montag realizes, Beatty wishes to die.
Clarisse McClellan
The enigmatic Clarisse appears only in the early stages of the narrative. Young (only seventeen) but thoughtful, ingenuous and wise, she questions not only everything about the world in which she lives but everything about Montag, who seems to her to have the kind of soul that most other firemen, and most other citizens, don’t. As their friendship is developing, however, Clarisse disappears. Montag is told she is killed, but the question of what happened to her is never definitively answered, and the reader would be justified in holding out at least a degree of hope that, in the absence of a dead body, she somehow managed to escape into the life of wandering resistance that Montag escapes into at the novel’s conclusion.
Clarisse’s Uncle
In her conversations with Montag, Clarisse comments repeatedly on how many of her insights and questions were triggered by the considerations of her uncle. Montag himself only hears her uncle once - on his dark-of-the-night visit to Clarisse’s home, where he hears the uncle discuss how everyone in society has become “disposable”. The never-named uncle disappears at the same time as Clarisse, but as is the case with his niece, there is a faint possibility that he has merely gone to ground. This idea is supported by the existence of the group of learned men encountered by Montag in the novel’s final stages, a group to which, it seems, Clarisse’s uncle might well belong.
The Old Woman
In Part 1, Montag and the other firemen are called to the home of an old woman who is reported to have a large collection of books. Instead of protesting and fighting what is about to happen, the woman calmly watches as her home and precious possessions are doused with kerosene. She then quotes the words of a famous and lights a match, setting herself and her home ablaze. Her actions and attitudes serve as a catalyst for Montag’s emerging, developing conscience.
Mildred
Mildred is Montag’s wife, a cold, distant woman evidently absorbed into the mindless desperation to be constantly entertained that defines and motivates society-at-large. There is, however, something more to her than that, as evidenced by the fact that, early in the narrative, she takes an overdose of pills. While the narrative never explicitly states whether the overdose was a deliberate suicide attempt, in the context of the many other suicides mentioned in narration (all of which, it seems, have to do with profound feelings of emptiness in the lives of those who make the attempt), Mildred’s attempt was, in fact, deliberate. If this is the case, then her fanatical devotion to the entertainments in the parlor and seemingly permanent attachment to her Ear Thimbles suggests a desperation to fill that emptiness with whatever society is making available to her. In short, she personalizes and embodies the empty society with which Montag eventually comes into conflict and flees.
Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles
These two friends of Mildred’s are invited to the Montag home to watch the “parlor”. They are as superficial and as self-indulgent as Mildred, just as susceptible to the suggestions and demands of the entertainment-oriented society in which they live and just as reluctant to have their thoughts altered or challenged in any way. It’s interesting to note, however, the different reactions these two women have when Montag confronts them with poetry. Mrs. Phelps weeps uncontrollably, the release of feelings triggered by the imagery and the language, a situation that presumably poetry is intended to accomplish and which the society of the time, with its ban on poetry and on literature of all types, intends to head off. Mrs. Bowles, on the other hand, reacts with anger and outrage, manifesting the views of society to the point where, as the narrative later reveals, she calls an alert about the Montags to the firemen.
The Old Man in the Park (Professor Faber)
Faber is initially referred to in two or three anonymous foreshadowings, narration describing him only as a thoughtful old man in a park with whom Montag has occasional, troubling, informative encounters. Later, as his awareness awakens, Montag makes contact with the old man, identified as Professor Faber and one of what is revealed to be a large number of thinkers and writers who have essentially gone underground during the thoughtless, mindless ascendancy of the governing authorities. Faber describes himself as having lived the life and made the choices of a coward. It could be argued, however, that in preserving his life and his intellect, in choosing to gamble on being able to wait out the current regime rather than fight against it, Faber has in fact made the wisest choice he could. He becomes a valuable and welcome ally for Montag in his struggle to understand the truth of both his own intuitions and of the society against which he begins to struggle, and in doing so, awakens himself to a more active, confrontational sense of responsibility and courage.
Although Faber disappears from the narrative and from the world in which it’s set in the book’s final quarter, there is the sense, as there is with Clarisse and her uncle, that he survived the physical, social and moral carnage of Montag’s escape and fled to the countryside. There he, like Montag and possibly Clarisse and her uncle, might have joined up with the secret army of the learned. Again, however, the narrative offers no firm indication that this is in fact the case.
The Learned Men
Following his escape from the city and his evasion of his pursuers, Montag encounters a group of haggard men sitting around a campfire. He eventually learns that the men are all well educated, university professors and writers and spiritual thinkers, all having taken refuge from the morally and mentally corrupt, book burning society that has no use for them. Montag eventually learns that not only are there men like them all over the country, but that each man carries with him the memorized text of a burned/banned book, text that, the men hope, they will one day be allowed to have transcribed and published once again.
Granger
When Montag encounters the group of learned men, Granger becomes their spokesman, telling Montag about who the men are, why they are in the situation they are in, and what they intend to eventually accomplish. Granger speaks of the hope, faith, and compassion taught to him by his grandfather, and of his belief that eventually, he and the other learned men (of which Montag is now one) will pass on what they have learned and have stored in their memories in the same way as his grandfather passed on important truths to him.
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