Fahrenheit 451 pgs. 3-21

Q. Ask a question that you have about what's going on in the novel. What do you find confusing?
A. Does Mildred have any sort of illness?
In the passage, Montag says to Mildred that she had overdosed. She had a taken two pills from a 30 pill bottle, then another two, and another. Does she have memory loss, or some type of illness that she's taking pills for?

Q. Even before Montag and his wife Mildred talk to one another we know that they are alienated (distant) from one another. How does the author convey this?
A. It was kind of confusing the first time I read about his wife. It seems like they are distant from one another. The author says, "Without turning on the light he imagined how this room would look. 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." I thought his wife had passed away. But as I read on, I realized that his wife does live with him, but they feel as if they live in separate worlds under the same roof. They don't really communicate with one another as husband and wife.