Post #5

"BEATTY WANTED TO DIE..."

This is what Montag thinks when he's running away from the Mechanical Hound - just after he had cauterized Beatty to death. He comes to this realization/suspicion/speculation when he rethinks how Beatty had spent his last moments alive:
-He handed a fire-loving fireman (Montag) a flame thrower, fully aware that Montag has his reasons to loathe Beatty.
-He would not stop talking until it pushed Montag over the edge even though Beatty knew he was very vulnerable.

Then we have to ask this question:
Do you think Beatty actually wanted to die? Do you believe Montag's reasoning?

This quote is important because this gets us readers thinking about what kind of character Captain Beatty had been...If he truly was an antagonist and a bad person, why did he walk into his own death knowingly? Did he have a death wish?
Is Captain Beatty your typical antagonist?

Or was Beatty too overconfident? Was a lack of intelligence and quick thinking the cause of his death?
But did he lack intelligence? Certainly not, from what we have read.

Another important thing to mention here is Beatty's speech before he died.
He told Montag that fire exists to burn. Fire is the solution to anything burdensome. If things get too burdensome, throw them in the furnace and they're gone. Fire burns consequences and responsibilities. Cauterize them out of existence.

Then fire burns Beatty out of existence.

How ironic.

Was Beatty a burden? Did Beatty's own philosophy simply turn on him? It looks like it.
Maybe he told all this to Montag to make him commit murder. Maybe he knew this speech he had given to Montag will tip him over the edge and do what he had done. Just maybe.