Despite their flippancy and chatter, the women are moved, but again, they do not understand why. Although Mildred makes the choice of what her husband should read, Matthew Arnold’s poem typifies Montag’s pessimism as he tries to fathom the vapid, purposeless lifestyles of the three women. The poem forces the women to respond—Mrs. Phelps with tears and Mrs. Bowles with anger. The Cheshire catlike smiles that Millie and her friends wear indicate their illusion of happiness. Montag imagines these smiles as burning through the walls of the house. Ironically, smiles should signify joy, but not in this case, just as they did not in Montag’s case. However, the smiles of these women are destructive and perhaps evil. Furthermore, Millie and her friends are characterized by fire imagery; they light cigarettes and blow the smoke from their mouths. They all have “sun-fired” hair and “blazing” fingernails. They, like the fleet of firemen, are headed toward their own destruction.
After this disastrous situation with Millie, Mrs. Phelps, and Mrs. Bowles, Montag anxiously prepares for his meeting with Beatty. Captain Beatty’s suspicion of Montag steadily increases as he watches Montag with an “alcohol-flame stare.” While Beatty is baiting Montag to slip about stealing books, Faber proves himself to be a good partner to Montag and supports him throughout the entire confrontation. In a most striking diatribe, Beatty reveals that he is extremely well read; he accurately quotes authors from a wide range of historical periods and is able to apply what he has read. He has obviously thought about what the works mean and, in a curious way, uses them to good effect against Montag. He is aware of Montag’s newfound zealousness (as Beatty states, “Read a few lines and off you go over a cliff. Bang, you’re ready to blow up the world, chop off heads, knock down women and children, destroy authority,”) and manages to urge Montag in a direction that would cause him to abandon his recently acquired humanistic convictions. Through ignoring the title of the book returned by Montag, Beatty shows that he is aware of Montag’s collection and is trying to get Montag to admit his guilt. Also, Beatty wants to prove to Montag that the title (and the book itself) is not significant. The only important point about the book is that it needs to be destroyed.
Montag can’t respond to Beatty’s denunciation of him (no doubt his rebuttal would have failed miserably) because the fire alarm sounds. In a colossal act of irony, Montag realizes when the firemen are called to action that his own home is the target for the firemen. Instead of implementing a plan to undermine the firemen by planting books in their houses, Montag, in a grotesque reversal of expectations, becomes a victim himself.
Part Two centers on Montag’s first personal experience with ideas found in books, and it details his change into a social rebel. The section seemingly ends on a note of defeat.
