Fahrenheit 451 Romanticism- Characters Set Apart from Society

Fahrenheit 451 displays numerous characteristics of Romanticism throughout the book.  One of the major aspects of Romanticism that is used to describe the main character, Montage, is the idea that he is set apart from the society.  This is important in Romanticism because it allows the author to incorporate the other characteristics of Romanticism, such as the fantasy or supernatural foreshadowing aspects, without having interference from other characters not important to the story.  This is an aspect of Romanticism that is constantly used throughout Fahrenheit 451.

Montage is not a well loved person in his community.  He burns books for a living along with around 5 other men.  They are his only associates until he meets his neighbor, Clarisse.  He begins to enjoy her company and learns a significant amount about himself as a person and his motives in life.  He does not speak to any other people than those in his family or his co-workers with the exception of Clarisse.  Nobody likes being around him because by destroying books, he destroys a part of the culture.  Books are very important to all cultures because they carry the history and interests of the people that wrote them.  As he realizes this, he becomes horrified in his actions and becomes obsessed with reading.  This obsession leads him to a small group of men that all share the same love of books and reading that he does.  These men are all in hiding because they were once hunted like he was because they learned to treasure the stories and history that came from books.  From that point on, he remained in the wilderness traveling with this small group of men and forgetting about all other people in his previous life.  Even before he was a member of the small group, he was set apart in the society and rarely spoke to people that he was not directly involved with.  He remained set apart from the common people throughout the entire story.