Fahrenheit 451 Characters

Target Language or Knowledge:

Guy Montag Mildred Montag Clarisse McClellan Mrs. Bowles The Operators Captain Beatty Stoneman and Black Mrs. Phelps Professor Faber Granger

A third-generation fireman who suddenly realizes the emptiness of his life and starts to search for meaning in the books he is supposed to be burning. Montag’s brittle, sickly looking wife. She is obsessed with watching television and refuses to engage in frank conversation with her husband. A beautiful seventeen-year-old who introduces Montag to the world’s potential for beauty and meaning with her gentle innocence and curiosity. One of Mildred’s friends. Like Mrs. Phelps, she does not seem to care deeply about her own miserable life. Both of Mildred’s friends are represented as typical specimens of their society. Men who use snakelike machines to remove the blood and stomach contents of a person who has attempted suicide.

The captain of Montag’s fire department. Although he is himself extremely well-read, paradoxically he hates books and people. Two firemen who work with Montag. They share the lean, shadowed look common to all firemen and go about their jobs unquestioningly. One of Mildred’s vapid friends. She is emotionally disconnected from her life, appearing unconcerned when her third husband is sent off to war. Yet she breaks down crying when Montag reads her a poem. A retired English professor whom Montag encountered a year before the book opens. Faber still possesses a few precious books and aches to have more. The leader of the “Book People,” the group of hobo intellectuals Montag finds in the country. Granger is intelligent, patient, and confident in the strength of the human spirit. He is committed to preserving literature through the current Dark Age.