Beatty is the fire chief where Montag is employed as a fireman. He is very contradictory and always one step ahead of Montag. He is a fireman because he hates books, but yet he can quote them with ease. He uses the books against Montag by quoting them in a paradoxical way. He actually composes a scenario where Montag and he have a battle of quotations through a dream of Beatty’s. He reenacts his dream for Montag, and it feels so real to Montag that he just feels like he was beaten. Beatty is probably the most complex of the characters. He most likely had a strong passion for books at some point in his life. Beatty has pretty much become satiated by not only books, but by Montag too. Beatty was probably just like Montag at one point. He continuously antagonizes Montag throughout the book. Beatty’s idea seems to be that people would just be better without books. He has read them; analyzed them; thought about them; and he believes that people are better off without them from personal experience. He simply wants to make these books burn. Montag sees the books completely different, but Montag is still very naïve. Montag has read books, but he has not analyzed them to a great extent. So Beatty uses books against Montag. Beatty has taught Montag a lot. He told him the history of firemen and other things, but Montag ends up killing him. In Beatty’s last moments he continues to insult Montag. Montag says that he appeared to not fear death. Montag had a flamethrower and Beatty pushed him to use it. Beatty called him an idiot for quoting poetry, and told him that he would bring in Faber too. Montag says that Beatty always told him “don’t face a problem, burn it” (Bradbury, 121.) Montag did to Beatty what Beatty did to him. He used a quotation against him. Beatty was an important character because he pushed Montag and antagonized him with a vast amount of knowledge behind him.
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 2003. Print.
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