Guy Montag

The smiling fireman

Fireman Guy Montag is the protagonist of the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. He is thirty years old (Part 1, 6%). Guy has black hair, soot-colored eyebrows, and bluish-looking skin where his beard is shaved off (Part 1. 45%). His face is marked by the many fires he has witnessed, he has furrows around his mouth (part 1, 6%). He wears the number "451" (Part 1, 8%) on his fireman uniform. He wears a permanent smile on his face and cannot remember ever not having smiled (Part 1, 2%).

Guy Montag has been a fireman since he turned twenty, (Part 1, 6%). His job is to burn books and houses where books are hidden, because owning books is considered a serious crime. Guy loves his job at the beginning of the novel (Part 1, 1%%).

Guy is married to Mildred. Because she did not want children, Guy never became a father (Part 1, 26%). The two spouses are characterized by a great mutual emotional distance. They sleep in separate beds (Part 1, 14%), separated by a glass wall (Part 1, 94%).

Mildred is constantly listening to the radio or watching TV and lives almost exclusively in this artificial world. She considers the characters on TV as her family instead of Guy (Part 1, 69%). Guy does not know what affects Mildred, but he knows that she is not well, because she attempts suicide (Part 1, 15%), which she later denies (Part 1, 25% ). She, in turn, does not want to know anything about Guy’s thoughts and problems, especially when Guy begins to doubt his view of the world (Part 1, 71% ff.).

Clarisse and Mildred

When Guy meets the seventeen-year-old Clarisse by chance, his world is torn apart. He is fascinated by the beautiful teenager from the first moment, especially because she behaves completely differently from the "normal" people in Guy's everyday life. She goes for walks at night, thinks a lot, and loves nature (Part 1, ...