Beatty (Fahrenheit 451)

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Captain Beatty is a fictional character from Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. He is captain of the protagonist, Guy Montag's, fire house. While firemen in Fahrenheit 451 burn books, and Beatty is dedicated to his work, he is also very well-read.

Beatty is a complex character, full of contradictions. He appears to both detest and embrace the world of literature. His role as a character is complicated by the fact that Ray Bradbury uses him to do so much explication of the novel’s background. In this respect, Beatty can be said to personify 'The State', in much the same way as does O'Brien in Nineteen Eighty-Four and the World Controller Mustapha Mond in Brave New World.

Beatty’s entire speech to Montag ("mind-struggling") describing the history of the firemen is strangely ambivalent, containing tones of irony, sarcasm, passion, and regret. He is cunning and devious, and uses his knowledge of books to attempt to persuade Montag. In Beatty's dream, he imagines a "furious debate on books" between himself and Montag.

Captain Beatty's Dream Sequence:

Montag: "Knowledge is more than equivalent to force!"

Beatty: "Well, Dr. Johnson also said, dear boy, that 'He is no wise man who will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.' Stick with the firemen, Montag. All else is dreary chaos!"

Montag: "Truth will come to light, murder will not be hid long!"

Beatty: "Oh God, he speaks only of his horse!" and "The Devil can cite scripture for his purpose."

Montag: "This age thinks better of a gilded fool than of a threadbare saint in wisdom's school!"

Beatty: "The dignity of truth is lost with much protesting."

Montag: "Carcasses bleed at the sight of the murderer!"

Beatty: "What, do I give you trench mouth?"

Montag: "Knowledge is power!" and "A dwarf on a giant's shoulders sees the farthest of the two!"

Beatty: "The folly of mistaking a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself as an oracle, is inborn in us, Mr. Valery once said."

Beatty seems to be aware of Montag's growing fascination with books, and lets it go on for a time. Later, he obliquely states that he knows that Montag has kept and has been reading books, and says that every fireman does it at some point. He quotes a rule that states that a fireman with books has 24 hours to turn them over to be burnt.

When Montag doesn't do so, however, and is turned in by his wife, Beatty takes Montag and the fire team over to Montag's house and commands Montag to burn the books. Montag burns both the books and his entire house, then threatens Beatty with his flamethrower. Beatty provokes Montag and threatens to track down Faber, until he finally burns Beatty alive, along with the Mechanical Hound. However, a Mechanical Hound from another district was brought in to track down Montag.

Later in the story Montag realizes that Beatty may well have meant to die at Montag's hands, it being a form of suicide. This adds to the complex and contradictory nature of Beatty's character. So too does the later version of the story, written as a stage play, that featured Beatty as the owner of a vast library which he purposefully neglects to read.

Beatty's symbolic opposite is Granger, the leader of the intellectual exiles....