Mildred Montag

Okay.  I have talked a whole bunch about Guy Montag.  We have discussed his traits, his accomplishments, his losses, and so on and so forth.  I have, however, talked very little of his wife!  Mildred Montag!  The most significant thing she does it attempt suicide.  It is never decided upon why she attempts suicide.  There are a few possibilities as to why she tried to swallow an entire bottle of sleeping pills, but no verdict is ever reached.  She is very overshadowed by her crazy, out of the ordinary husband during most of the book.  We basically see her being very boring and ignoring Montag to watch television.  I think that is exactly what she is there for.  We have all of these extraordinary characters, Guy Montag, Clarisse McClellan, Professor Fabor, Beatty, and so on.  We kind of lose sight of what all of the 'normal' people are like in "Fahrenheit 451."  We are so constantly encompassed by Montag's uniqueness and Clarisse's as well, we do not have very many examples of what a normal towns person looked like.  That is were Mildred Montag comes in.  She is a follower.  Completely vacant except for what people tell her.  She has so thoroughly convinced herself that she is happy, she is even able to tell other people that.  When Guy Montag asks her if she is indeed happy she is able to reply that she is completely satisfied with her life.  All she does is watch television, basically, so that is a complete lie.  I do not care what you say.  There is no way you can feel fulfilled through just watching television and blocking out all other humans, except a few friends to watch television with.  That is exactly how the townspeople were, though.  They all were vacant little black holes doing as they were told and feeling as they were told.  Mildred was a fine representation of that.  Next to her rebellious husband, she was the perfectly typical example of normality in her town.  


Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.