Compare and contrast Montag and Beatty.

While Montag wants to change the system Beatty is mired in it.  Beatty is a tortured soul who is agonized by paradox. He despises the things he loves and visa versa. Much like Montag, Beatty craves the wisdom found in books but despises himself for it because he is a slave to the state's status quo. Montag is wanting to destroy the status quo. He wants to purge it and begin again. At one point Beatty compares Montag with Icarus, the son of Daedalus. In Greek mythology this character made the wings out of wax and flew too close to the sun. The wax melted, his wings disintegrated he dropped to earth and died.Of course the allusion is made because Montag is trying to change a system that will destroy him if he tries any harder.