am very much in love!" He tried to conjure up a face to fit the words, but there was no face. "I am!"

Montag seems to realize at this moment that he is not in love with his wife. He has more in common with Clarisse and derives much more pleasure from talking to her. Montag has a strong sense of duty and feels responsible for Mildred, but his attachment to her is based on guilt, not on love or even affection. As the story unfolds, the emptiness of their marriage becomes just as apparent to Montag as it has been to Mildred for a long time. After her overdose, Montag thinks that he would not have cried at her death. The thought of this, ironically, makes him cry, "not at death but at the thought of not crying at death, a silly empty man near a silly empty woman...." It is this emptiness, Montag's guilt at not feeling what he thinks he ought to feel, that defines his relationship with Mildred.

Mildred and Montag almost have no relationship. Their lives are so very different, especially after Montag meets Clarisse, that there's no hope of reconciliation or even communication among the two. In fact, the first time we meet Mildred, she has attempted suicide. Although she claims that her "family" (the three talking walls which interact with her) keep her happy, it is clear she is suffering some form of depression. This is evident in her other behavior. One of her favorite hobbies is to take "take out the beetle"- drive their car at insane speeds, killing whatever animals happen to get in the way. She rarely listens to Montag, often keeping a Seashell portable radio in her ear, whether sleeping or driving. She represents the apathetic portion of society. She doesn't care about war or books, unless it will interrupt her entertainment. Indeed, she is so numb, she doesn't even realize that all her shows are the same. She doesn't even realize she tried to kill herself.

Montag suffers under this passivity. Meeting Clarisse sparks a life in him that permanently keeps him from Mildred. He begins questioning his life, which is a dangerous thing to do in the novel's culture. He never watches "the family", finding the conversation inane and trite. That alone would probably have destroyed his marriage, but it's helped along by everything else he doesn't want to do. Apart from being a firefighter, he rarely enjoys technology for its recreational uses. He doesn't like to drive, doesn't listen to the radio, etc. So, we have someone who buys fully into the Government's satiating tactics, and someone who embarks on a rebellious mission to discover the truth.

At the beginning of the novel, Montag thinks that their relationship is just fine; in fact, he declares to himself that he is perfectly happy.  However, when he gets home that first night, to find Mildred comatose after a suicide attempt, then he starts to wonder if he and Mildred really are happy.  Then, when Clarisse pulls the dandelion "you're not in love with anyone" stunt, he is even more startled. He realizes that he can't even remember when he and Mildred first met.  He realizes that they don't really have a relationship at all--he goes to work, she watches her television, and they don't talk.  They don't connect.

Later, when Montag tries to drag Mildred into reading books with him, their distance is even more apparent.  Millie is irritated, wanting to go do her own thing, but Montag wants her to be there with him as he journeys towards change and enlightenment.  But, she won't.  In fact, she betrays him by turning him into the firestation.  She calls the alarm on her own husband.  So, they are not close.  They are so distant in fact that Mildred has more loyalty to her society than she does to her husband, and their house ends up getting torched as a result of it.  Montag chooses to leave her behind and goes on the run.  And, when the city burns to the ground, he imagines Mildred there, burning with her walls, and is oddly unemotional about it.  He remember where they met, and can picture it happening, and that's about it.

So overall, Millie and Montag are not close at all--she is a shallow product of their society, and he is not, so that gap causes a rift between them that ultimately separates them in the end.  I hope that helps; good luck!

Man, is this relationship bad!  I am struck by how intensely bad, yet seemingly normal the relationship is between Guy and Millie.  I think that things between them are fine, so long as Status Quo is completely embraced and never questioned.  When Guy starts to question his own reality and the surrounding system of which he and Mildred are a part, we begin to see challenge in their relationship.  Millie wants things to go back to "the way things were," and Guy is committed to exploring the new consciousness that he has adopted.  At the same time, the distance that was probably latent between them emerged into a mammoth sized rift between them.  This distance essentially sees them as married, but really having little connection, if any.  Guy pursues his own life with his new understanding and Millie takes an overdose of sleeping pills as her way of "dealing" with hers.  The really fascinating, and scary, element about their relationship is that as Guy develops as a character in the novel, we see little in way of emotion about the relationship he shared with Mildred.  It's almost as if it has been airbrushed out of his emotional memory, making it a really unhealthy relationship in my mind.  As he pursues his own new understanding about himself and the world, it seems that this "political" aspiration and exploration supplants all else, even a relationship in the private.  Montag uses her overdose as a political element, surmising that there was something odd about the nonchalant way her caretakers dismissed her actions.  At this, we can see how the political has subsumed the private in Montag's mind.

To me, this relationship is very one sided.  Guy Montag clearly cares about Millie, but she does not care about him.  You can see this in the way that they treat each other.

Guy is very concerned about Millie.  He is alarmed when she just about kills herself (accidentally) and he wants to try to fix their relationship.  He seems to care about her because he tries to get her to read books and such, hoping that this will make her care about her life again.  If he didn't care about her, he would not have needed to do this.

By contrast, Millie does not care about Guy.  She only cares about the "people" in the parlour walls.  Even when Guy is all worried about their relationship, Millie is not.  For her, Guy and their relationship are really not important.  This shows how she is a true product of her society -- she does not really care about other people.

Both Clarisse McClellan and Mildred Montag are caught up in a society beyond their control, a society that oppresses them and tries to regulate everything they do and say and think. Yet these two characters respond very differently to that coercion.

Seventeen-year-old Clarisse is a free spirit. She is curious, open, intellectual, and appealing. She asks question after question as she tries to understand her world. She is not afraid to think and explore and wonder. Even in a world that wants people half-dead and unthinking, Clarisse is alive and engaged and enthusiastic. Further, she encourages the people around her to think and to question. Her brilliance inspires Montag to awaken in his mind. Her questions make him question. Her happiness makes him realize that he is not happy. When Clarisse is killed, Montag finally decides the time has come for him to act. He must become the free spirit that Clarisse was.

Mildred Montag, on the other hand, is half-dead. She follows society's demands to the point of numbness. Her whole life consists of watching television and listening to the radio. She does not think or question or try to understand anything. She merely plods along day after day. Of course, Mildred is not happy. In fact, she is miserable, and that's why she tries to commit suicide at the beginning of the novel by swallowing a whole bottle of sleeping pills. When her husband begins to wake up and read, Mildred decides that unthinking conformity is more important than her husband, and she betrays him to the authorities. Indeed, Mildred is merely an empty shell of a woman who lacks anything in the way of intellectual, emotional, or spiritual sparks that could enlighten her mind and heart.

Mildred and Clarisse are polar opposites, but both are alike in the fact that they are both destroyed by their dystopian society.

Despite being so unhappy at her empty life that she attempts suicide as the novel opens, Mildred tries as hard as possible to conform to social norms. She endlessly watches mindless television shows on the giant television screens in her parlor. She is so lost in a shallow fantasy world that she and Montag barely relate to each another anymore. When he tries to persuade her to join him in pursuing a better life through books, she reacts in fear, because books are illegal. Finally, rather than support her husband, she betrays him to the authorities. Not long after, she is blown up in the nuclear combat that destroys her city.

Clarisse reacts to the sickness in her society by ignoring its unhealthy norms and being, like the rest of her family, a non-conformist. She takes walks and interacts with nature, spends her time having conversations rather than watching television, and, as Beatty puts it, persists in asking "why" questions. When she meets and talks to Montag, he feels seen and alive for the first time in years, because she actually connects with him on a human level. Yet, like Mildred, she is killed by her society. We learn she is run over by a car filled with bored, violent teenagers looking for thrills.

Taken together, Mildred and Clarisse illustrate the severe challenges faced by those trying to find happiness and fulfillment in their world.

Both Clarisse McClellan and Mildred play a significant role in Montag's life and motivate him to quit his occupation in order to pursue knowledge. After Montag interacts with Clarisse, he begins to examine his meaningless, mundane lifestyle and question his occupation. Montag then witnesses Mildred overdose on sleeping pills and realizes that he is trapped in a loveless marriage. Mildred's lack of compassion and superficial, dangerous lifestyle influence Montag to quit his job as a firefighter and begin looking in books for answers to life's most pressing questions.

Although both females significantly influence Montag's life, Clarisse and Mildred share little in common. Clarisse is a charismatic teenager who is outspoken and extremely curious. Clarisse has an affinity for nature, enjoys engaging in meaningful conversations, and is considered an outcast in Bradbury's dystopian society. She is also quite intuitive and intelligent, which Montag finds refreshing and pleasant. In contrast, Mildred is depicted as a superficial, shallow woman who is addicted to consuming mindless entertainment and prescription medications. Mildred is a materialistic, heartless character who refuses to closely examine herself. Mildred cannot engage in a meaningful conversation, does not support Montag's intellectual pursuits, and eventually turns him in to the authorities for reading poetry aloud. Overall, Clarisse and Mildred both dramatically influence Montag's decision to change the trajectory of his life but share little in common and are considered foils in the novel.

Mildred and Clarisse are two women who affect the life of Montag. Clarisse walks around outside and talks with people, asking them how they feel. On the other hand, Mildred stays indoors, unconcerned about emotions or anything very personal.

When Montag meets Clarisse, he notices how her eyes refract his own light. With Clarisse he feels a glowing sensation; however, after he enters his own house,

it feels "like coming into the cold marbled room of a mausoleum after the moon has set.

He finds Mildred with the thimble radio in her ears; her eyes stare blankly because she has overdosed on sleeping tablets, and he must phone the emergency number. On the following day, Mildred acts as though nothing unusual has happened. She is only concerned with watching the large screens in her living room and interacting with characters on the screen. But, when he talks with Clarisse, she is interested in Montag, having asked him if he ever reads the books he confiscates and burns; she also wants to know what he thinks.

Because of her intellectual curiosity and interest in human feelings, Clarisse poses a danger to Montag that Mildred, who refuses to have anything to do with the books that Montag later brings some into the house. In fact, Clarisse is responsible for the metamorphosis of Montag as he moves from fireman to one who reads and protects books. For it is she who has asked Montag if he ever reads the books he confiscates; it is Clarisse who has sparked Montag's interest in learning of the human experience through reading.

Although there are a tremendous amount of differences between the two characters, there are some similarities also.

1. They are both females who live in the same neighborhood and live under the same rules, regulations, and government.

2. They both have a distant attachment to Montag.  Clarisse has just met him, having just moved into the neighborhood. (pg 6)  Even though Mildred and Montag have only been married ten years, Mildred can't tell him where they met or when.  (pg 43). He can't remember either.  It is important to him, and she says, "It doesn't matter". Bradbury tells us "And he remembered thinking then that if she died, he was certain he wouldn't cry.  For it would be the dying of an unknown." (pg 44)

3. Both Clarisse and Mildred do not think they have anything to fear from the government.  Clarisse sees the government people as a game.  They make her go to a psychiatrist and she "makes up things to say". (pg 22) She says that "they" (the government) want to know what she does with her time. She tells them she sits and thinks, but she won't tell them what she thinks about.  "I've got them running".  Mildred has been brainwashed by the government and spends her days mesmerized by the three walls and the characters on it she considers "family".  She turns in Montag, who will be arrested, for the books he has in the house and flees even as her house burns. She thinks if she turns him in, she is safe.  She has done what the government and her peers have told her to do.

4. They are both killed by the government.  Beatty tells Montag that they have been watching Clarisse's family and that "she was a time bomb." (pg 60)  Her problem was that she "didn't want to know how something was done, but why. .....She is better off dead."(pg 60) Then he adds, "Luckily, queer ones like her don't happen often.  We know how to nip most of them in the bud early." (pg 60) Mildred told him that Clarisse was run over by a car. (pg 47) They never come out and directly say that the government killed her, but it is heavily inferred.  Mildred is killed at the end of the book by the atom bomb that is dropped during the one day war. (pg 159) Montag imagines  "that at last she recognized it (her face) as her own and looked quickly up at the ceiling as it and the entire structure of the hotel blasted down upon her, carrying her with a million pounds of brick, metal, plaster, and wood...where an explosion rid itself of them in its own unreasonable way"  (pg 160)

Clarisse also has a very different relationship to Guy Montag.

Montag views Clarisse as a kindred spirit, who does not conform to their dystopian society's culture and has an affinity for nature, learning, and literature. When Montag initially meets Clarisse, he discovers that she is a unique, introspective teenager, who does not fit in with her peers. She enjoys having insightful conversations, loves nature, and questions their society's culture and values. Clarisse asks Montag if he is happy and mentions that he is not in love, which motivates Montag to change the trajectory of his life. Montag begins behaving like Clarisse and reveals that he is also a curious person who values independence and the pursuit of knowledge. Similar to Clarisse, Montag does not fit in with his peers and has a completely different set of interests and values than his fellow firemen. Montag also shares Clarisse's affinity for nature and is thrilled about the idea of escaping the superficial, violent dystopian city for the opportunity to live in the wilderness among traveling intellectuals. Montag also refuses to conform and expresses his individuality by embracing unique ideas like Clarisse. Montag and Clarisse also agree that their society is too violent and lacks substance. Overall, Montag shares many inherent qualities with Clarisse, which is why they connect and become close friends before she tragically passes away.

Clarisse and Mildred are not similar in many ways, and Bradbury most likely did that on purpose.  Mildred was a symbol of their society's mindlessness, and Clarisse was a symbol for what their society is missing, the society of thinking, living, and being happy.  So, to find similarities you have to go down to the basics, like, they are both female, they both play a significant role in Montag's life, and they both act as catalysts for Montag to change (Clarisse to initiate change, Mildred to leap over the cliff into full rebellion as she calls the alarm in on him and abandons him).

In activities and beliefs, they truly don't have very many similarities.  It would be easier to discuss how they are different in those areas, because they are, completely.  They both believe in Montag, though for different reasons.  Clarisse believes he is a kind man, who cares to listen to her, which means he is different, and a good human being.  Mildred believes in Montag's steadiness, and his ability to provide a living to support her lifestyle.  So, the belief in Montag is there, just in different ways.  They both believe in doing things that please them-for Clarisse this is thinking about the why of things, talking with her family, and asking questions.  For Mildred, it is watching t.v. and socializing with her friends.  In that way, their activities are similar in the fact that they do things they enjoy.  They both enjoy driving, although Mildred likes driving when she is upset.  She tells Montag that "I always like to drive fast when I feel" upset.  Clarisse on the other hand, likes watching people drive "on the boulevard" and wonders how they "know what grass is, or flowers, because they never see them" because they are going too fast.

So, there are some ideas for you; it's a tough question, that's for sure!  Good luck!

When Clarisse and Montag first meet in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, they have nothing in common. Clarisse's questions regarding Montag—his job, his ideas and even the quality of his life—are the catalyst for change in this fireman's life.

Montag burns books for a living. Society has banned all possession of them. Free-thinking is discouraged as the masses are numbed at every turn—through socially controlled rhetoric in the programming of shows on the "parlor wall" televisions; the content of billboards on the side of the road; and, even the propaganda conveyed through their ear buds—the "Seashells"—they wear to bed.

Because society has gone to such lengths to turn citizens' minds off, most people not only fail to question their circumstances, but also have forgotten (or have never known) some of the most basic things in life. For instance, it is Clarisse that reminds Montag that there is dew on the grass in the morning. She tells him that firemen used to stop fires, not start them. She also points out that cars go so fast that drivers cannot see the grass or flowers; and that billboards are now 200 feet long, though they used to be only 20 feet long when people drove more slowly—which is now against the law.

At first, Montag believes that Clarisse is extremely odd. Her observations and questions make him uneasy. However, the light in her eyes makes him think of the illumination of a candle his mother once lit in total darkness...and her comments serve to bring such a light into Montag's mind.

One time, as a child, in a power failure, his mother had found and lit a last candle and there had been a brief hour of rediscovery, of...illumination...

It is at this point that Montag begins the journey that will make him more like Clarisse, though he only sees her a few times before she is killed by a speeding car.

When they meet, Montag is proud of his job and there is an inference that he enjoys a certain power that comes with his profession. Clarisse is fascinated by what he does, clearly not understanding why he burns things. She is, it seems, even repulsed not only by the stench of kerosene that has permeated his clothing (which he says is like a perfume to him), but also by his level of comfort in destroying books and houses. We learn from Clarisse that most people are afraid of firemen—which surprises Montag. When Clarisse questions whether Montag is happy, he is flabbergasted; however, his mind begins to question this and many other things.

Over the course of the novel, Montag ponders many of the concerns that Clarisse expressed. For instance, at the firehouse he echoes something she once said to him. He asks Beatty and others there:

Didn't firemen prevent fires rather than stoke them up and get them going?

After the men burn the house and the owner at 11 N. Elm Street, Montag, like Clarisse before him, questions the burning of books, begins to believe it is wrong and wonders why some people are willing to die for their books. He tells Mildred:

There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing.

Perhaps, overall, the way Montag becomes most like Clarisse is in developing a consuming curiosity about the world: about how he fits in and what he does not know; a need to discover not who society has made him believe he is, but who he really is. (Clarisse knew who she was.) By the novel's end, Montag has made the decision as to who he wants to be, and joins the revolution of others like himself to save books and rebuild society.

Both Mildred and Clarisse, at one point, caught Montag's eye.  He married Mildred, but later became good friends with Clarisse.  So both women-at one point-interested him on some level.  They were both beautiful in their own ways too.  Bradbury says of Clarisse, "The girl's face was there, really quite beautiful", and look below for a quote on Mildred's beauty.

Also, both women were unfortunate casualities of the society that they lived in.  Granted, their fates were on opposite ends of the spectrum:  Mildred was the cold, miserable prototype of their stifling society: "Her face was like a snow-covered island upon which rain might fall, but it felt no rain; over which clouds might pass their moving shadows, but she felt no shadow".  Whereas it was hinted that Clarisse, because her and her family refused to become as Mildred was, was taken away or removed (if her family wasn't fortunate enough to escape first):  "And then, Clarisse was gone."  So both women suffered in their society.

Those are just a couple ideas, and I hope they help.

There are more ways in which Clarisse and Mildred contrast than they do compare. In fact, their differences far exceed their similarities. The most obvious similarity is that they are both female.

Another similarity is that they are both significant in Guy’s journey towards happiness and preservation of the information in books. It was Clarisse that prompted Guy to question his profession, his state of happiness and life as a whole. Guy then began to read books and think, he saw the world from a new angle and he wanted to fight for change. Mildred, on the other hand, reminded Guy of how shallow and empty the world has been turned into because of the brain controlling information conveyed by the walls to which the majority of people are slaves. Mildred’s lifestyle was a constant reminder to Guy that things needed to change and he needed to be involved in the change. Finally, Guy’s efforts to change were accelerated when Mildred prompted the authorities about Guy’s books and he had to flee and join the social outcasts out to keep books alive through memorization.

Another similarity is that both Clarisse and Mildred die and leave Guy pursuing his mission. Clarisse was run over by a car and Mildred died when an atomic bomb was dropped on the city. 

1.  They both at one point, caught Montag's eye.  He married Mildred, but later became good friends with Clarisse.  So both women-at one point-interested him on some level.

2.  They both were unfortunate casualities of the society that they lived in.  Granted, their fates were on opposite ends of the spectrum:  Mildred was the cold, miserable prototype of their stifling society, whereas it was hinted that Clarisse, because her and her family refused to become as Mildred was, was taken away or removed (if her family wasn't fortunate enough to escape first).  So both women suffered in their society.

In almost every other way, Mildred and Clarisse seem to be polar opposites, which is one reason Montag finds Clarisse so refreshing and different from what he's used to.  I hope that helps!

Clarisse has seemingly been influenced by her family, specifically a rebellious uncle she mentions several times. These influences caused her priorities in life to be thinking, pondering, having meaningful conversations, questioning the way things are. She is certainly NOT influenced by her surrounding society, as Mildred is. Mildred's priorities are seemingly those of her society at large: to avoid any deep thought or emotion, to fill her world with so much noise (ear radios, wall tvs) that this avoidance is simple.