It’s clear that both Beatty’s knowledge and his bitterness come from a close association with books. Beatty makes this clear in his conversation with Montag after Montag arrives back at the firehouse with a book to burn (part II). Montag’s guilt is evident, but Beatty reassures him that “we’re all sheep who have strayed at times,” and that now his “fever is over.”
Actually, Beatty’s fever seems to have never left. He describes learning as drinking, and readers as alcoholics, using a metaphor from Alexander Pope, an eighteenth-century English poet.
“I’ll tell you,” said Beatty, smiling at his cards. “That made you for a little while a drunkard. Read a few lines and off you go over the cliff. Bang, you’re ready to blow up the world, chop off heads, knock down women and children, destroy authority. I know, I’ve been through it all.”
While the Captain accepts the book from Montag, he goes on to describe a dream he had, in which he and Montag were engaged in a fierce debate over the role and power of knowledge. In the debate, both individuals used quotes from literature to support their points. Beatty is incredibly articulate and concise when quoting these authors, making it clear that he’s read these pages deeply. So why would he destroy the thing he knows so intimately and which he clearly craves interaction with?
The answer lies in his conversation with Montag at the end of part I. Beatty sees his role in society as maintaining its stability by preventing the discord that comes from literature, culture, art, and philosophy. “That way lies melancholy,” he claims, and he works to ensure the happiness of the population by destroying the items which would induce this discomfort. He claims that men who only focus on the mechanical aspects of their lives are happier than those who are trying to understand a universe “which just won’t be measured or equated without making man feel bestial and lonely. I know, I’ve tried it; to hell with it.”
Ultimately, Beatty’s own experience with literature, which often causes confusion and offense (as authors don’t always agree), has led him to believe that the only way to maintain a stable society is by destroying those things which would unhinge it. He ends the conversation by asking Montag to reconsider his position and come back to work soon.
“I don’t think you realize how important you are, to our happy world as it stands now.”
There are different kinds of intelligence, not all of which relate to the reading of books. Captain Beatty's intelligence is that of a cunning man-on-the-make, a highly ambitious state functionary who sees the burning of books as a means to an end: the acquisition of power and influence. And it's not just burning books that Beatty looks upon as a means to an end, but knowledge, too. He uses little snippets of information he's gleaned from books, succinct quotations and aphorisms, as weapons against Montag. It's an old cliché that knowledge is power, but it's no less true for that. For Beatty, knowledge has no intrinsic value; it's simply a way of gaining power and control over others. He feels no compunction, then, in consigning books to the flames, as he's already got what he wanted from them: enough information to throw in Montag's face to keep him in a position of subordination.
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