Villain

Villain, antagonist, take your pick. In any case this character will always exist so long as intellectuals write; create; imagine. As delayed as this may be, I am typing about the villain in Ray Bradbury's creation, Fahrenheit 451, Beatty: leading officer in Guy Montag's Firemen division. If the concept of a villain is a man apart of an evil plot, then Beatty may not seem so bad of a person in the perspective of a John Doe in this world. His philosophy and personal experience with a multitude of "banned" books more than warrants his position on controversial novels in general -- that such books only suppress and depress the citizens of that city. In Bradbury's author's reflection of the novel, itself, Bradbury goes into depth the characterization of Beatty as far as his imagination would take him. Projecting Beatty and Montag as physical, individual persons, Bradbury imagines the two in Beatty's "library" where laid dormant the multitude written works. He visualized the two in a teacher to apprentice setting, where Beatty showed and justified himself for keeping such an illegal trove to a very awestruck Montag. This scenario, one that would take place before the novel, gives definition to the mysterious antagonist as only but a philosopher disguised as a fireman. Beatty's opinion is what defines the general image of the dystopian society that they exist in; that the so-called "awe-inspiring" works only hurt and bring down the Average Joe, in plain sight. This position that Beatty sets himself upon almost gives him a wise yet misguided character rather than that of a nefarious one.
However, because this is a dystopian novel, this philosopher is later on seen as the villain of Guy Montag as he merely follows orders to burn Montag's home for housing copies of the Christian Bible and a range of poems. At the moment of Beatty's death by Montag does our protagonist see that this wise man had a desire to die; had a longing for deliverance from the terrifying world that he mourns in. And it is after Montag's realization of this that we, the audience, see that Beatty was forced upon this entitlement of villain because of the popular opinion of intelligence was: a menace. A question comes to mind upon reflecting upon this character. Who really was the villain? Beatty or popularity?