who is mildred and how did she influence montag on his journey to self discovery

Mildred is Montag's wife.  She is the exact opposite of
Clarisse.  Clarisse is alive and full of thought and stimulating.  Mildred is boring,
overstimulated by TV and drugs, and not interested in life around her.  After meeting
Clarisse and having the stimulating experience of thinking again, he realizes that he
hardly knows Mildred at all.  He asks her where and when they met ten years ago, and she
doesn't remember, but neither does he.  She doesn't care.  He suddenly remembered
thinking that "if she died, he was certain he wouldn't cry.  For it would be the dying
of an unknown." (pg 44) He asks himself at that point how he got to be so empty.  He
sees her as the life he does not want to have, as the epitome of what the government
wants for all people.  It moves him forward.