That is what the book says. Montag, thinking back, realizes, "Beatty had wanted to die. He had just stood there, not really trying to save himself,...joking, needling, ...yelling at people and making fun of them." Montag feels that Beatty was egging him on, oddly wanting him to throw the flames at him and end his life.
It seems odd though; Beatty, such an intense character who avidly promoted his society's ideals, had been miserable? It is only after we learn that Beatty had wanted to die that we can look back and see some of the hints and clues that he left. He told Montag that he had read, suffered an identity crisis, wanted to blow up the world or stage revolutions. He was highly read, highly informed, and had returned to being a fire chief. So he had the background of a potential revolutionary, but instead turned his hatred on others who had been like him; perhaps this hypocrisy, and the true knowledge of the emptiness of their society had gotten to him in the end.
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