Beatty wanted to die because he felt that life was not worth living. In Montag’s world, people committed suicide constantly. Beatty was more intelligent and more aware than most. He knew that the world was pointless. He had read the books. He taunted Montag with them. He knew what was happening, and did not try to stop it. When Mildred called an alarm in on Montag, Beatty took a kind of sadistic glee in it. ...
Beatty wanted to die because he felt that life was not worth living. In Montag’s world, people committed suicide constantly. Beatty was more intelligent and more aware than most. He knew that the world was pointless. He had read the books. He taunted Montag with them. He knew what was happening, and did not try to stop it. When Mildred called an alarm in on Montag, Beatty took a kind of sadistic glee in it. He did not try to evade Montag when he turned on Beatty.
Although Montag was broken up about turning his flamethrower on Beatty and killing him, he realized that Beatty had wanted to die, just like everyone else. This is why he did not try to stop Montag.
Beatty had wanted to die. He had just stood there, not really trying to save himself, just stood there, joking, needling … How strange, strange, to want to die so much that you let a man walk around armed and then instead of shutting up and staying alive, you go on yelling at people and making fun of them until you get them mad, and then .... (Part III)
Knowing that Beatty had wanted to die and had goaded him does not make Montag feel much better. He never wanted to kill a man. Montag feels that there is more to life. He reacts differently to the emptiness than the people who commit suicide. He decides to seek out the book people and find out what more the world has to offer. (He has to outrun the Mechanical Hound first.) He makes it just in time, because just after he gets out his city is bombed.
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