Tuesday, October 12, 2010

What evidence is there of the physical descriptions of Clarisse and Mildred in Fahrenheit 451?

Bradbury is a master of imagery, similes and metaphors; hence, he uses them to describe people's features and personalities. That said, there are no explicit descriptions, only ones steeped in imagery. For example, Montag smells apricots and strawberries when he is around Clarisse, but he describes her as follows:



"There was only the girl walking with him now, her face bright as snow in the moonlight. . . He saw himself in her eyes. . . as if her eyes were two miraculous bits of violet amber that might capture and hold him intact. Her face, turned to him now, was fragile milk crystal with a soft and constant light in it" (7).



Bradbury uses the words "snow" and "milk" which suggest a white face, but also a pure and young one. He also uses many images of light, such as moonlight and candlelight, to describe how Clarisse radiates brightness and warmth from her person. Her eyes seem to be contrasted with the words violet and amber, but he also says they are dark. This contrast between Clarisse's facial brightness and her dark eyes suggests rare beauty. After talking with her for the first time, he gets home and thinks the following:



"He looked at a blank wall. The girl's face was there, really quite beautiful in memory: astonishing, in fact. She had a very thin face like the dial of a small clock . . . with a white silence" (10).



Again, the color white is used, this time coupled with silence, creating a very thought-provoking image, just like Clarisse's personality and the things she says.


Mildred, on the other hand, is not as impressive or warm—at least not enough for Montag to dwell on her features as he does on Clarisse's. Most of the imagery used to describe Montag's wife has to do with cold, steel, and death.



"His wife stretched on the bed, uncovered and cold, like a body displayed on the lid of a tomb, her eyes fixed to the ceiling by invisible threads of steel, immovable. . . 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" (13).



The above passage also uses snow to describe Mildred, but it is only to show coldness because she couldn't feel rain or shadows if she wanted to. Through such images Mildred symbolizes death and Clarisse surely symbolizes life for Montag. That is not to suggest that he doesn't care for his wife. At one point he thinks he wouldn't cry if she died, but he does care about her and the life they could have had. Unfortunately, after he survives the bombing of the city, he says the following:



"My wife, my wife. Poor Millie, poor, poor Millie. I can't remember anything. I think of her hands but I don't see them doing anything at all. They just hang there at her sides or they lay there on her lap or there's a cigarette in them, but that's all" (156).



Of all the things to remember about his wife, Montag thinks of her non-productive hands. He's really rather sad for her loss and the fact that she could have been much more, but she was the product of the society that created her—distracted, lifeless, and one who was as though walking dead.

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