Mildred Montag, the wife of Guy Montag, is a perfect representation of how a person will end up as a result of exposing themselves to meaningless media. She is brainwashed into believing that what she views through the television walls is her escape from her own reality. Her thought processes do not flow very deeply as she never questions society’s motives and, in turn, just takes them at face value. The very cause of this could be most contributed to the absence of books in her lifetime.
Mildred’s mind was very void of substance, but was filled with meaningless information from mass media. Unlike Faber and (later) Montag, Mildred and the rest of society do not learn how to think for themselves.
An example of how unsatisfied she is with the reality of her own life, she suffers an overdose of sleeping pills without even realizing what she has done. Mildred and Guy Montag speak briefly the next morning and after Guy tells her she took all of the pills, she says, “what would I want to go and do a silly thing like that for?” (19).
Mildred’s appearance also suffers due to her sedentary lifestyle. Her features are vividly described. “Her hair burnt by chemicals to a brittle straw, her eyes with a kind of cataract unseen but suspect far behind the pupils, the reddened pouting lips, the body as thin as a praying mantis from dieting, and her flesh like white bacon" (48). Guy Montag then says he cannot recall her any other way.
Mildred’s state of mind is one that begs pity, especially from Montag. The two do not communicate very frequently, but if they were to, Montag cannot think of one thing they would discuss. Mildred is so absorbed in her television “family” that she can recall many events that happened throughout the programs. Unfortunately, this causes her to have trouble recalling some of the most basic details from her own life such as how she met her husband.
Not only does Mildred not question society’s role, she embraces the control it has over everyone by begging Guy Montag to purchase a fourth television wall so she can feel “like this room wasn’t ours at all, but all kinds of exotic people’s rooms” (20-21).
Mildred is a prime example of where today’s society is going. The growing impact of technology on peoples’ lives is leading to the downfall of individualistic thinking. The media is constantly dictating what should and should not be done and society is becoming more prone to accepting these ideals.
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