The theme of The Graduate is the emotional journey of an innocent and confused
recent college graduate who is exploited through an affair with a family friend who is a
married woman. It is satirical and often times comedic in its reflections of the social and
sexual mores of the 1960s.
A tight close up of Benjamin Braddock’s face opens the film, a sharp contrast of
his face against the stark whiteness that surrounds his head, symbolic of a Christ-like
halo. It appears as though he is alone but he is actually on a plane, interacting with no
one - isolated in thoughts and emotions. More symbolism of isolation with no one there
the luggage chute, he grabs it and he then is swallowed up by the crowd in the terminal.
Music enhances this isolation theme: Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence.” After
four years of college, one would think he would have more than just a single suitcase.
He is alone on his bed in his old room in his parents’ home, looking at his fish
tank, tiny plastic scuba diver, black and white fish. Can he relate with this lonely little
scuba diver?
Ben’s parents have invited their friends (symbolic of Ben being isolated with no
friends of his own to invite) to a cocktail party to celebrate his college graduation. Where
are his friends? He went away to college back east and his parents are showing him off
like a trophy (symbolic of what their money can buy). Ben seems without focus and
direction which is common after graduation with the loss of purpose and no job
prospects.
Mr. Braddock seems puzzled at Ben’s self-imposed isolation because to him, his
son has the world at his fingertips. But Ben, lacking direction, has no plans. Mr.
Braddock insists Ben come downstairs to the party where he is put on display like a
trophy. There is a black and white sad clown (Ben’s reluctance to socialize) picture on
the wall as Ben descends the stairs to the party.
Ben tries to schmooze, receiving congratulatory kudos from his parents’ friends.
When asked what he is going to do with his future, he seems embarrassed by all the
attention and replies, “Well, that’s a little hard to say” (because he doesn’t know). Ben’s
graduation present from his parents is a new Alfa Romeo convertible sports car (a chick
magnet and a trophy of their money). A family friend advises him, “There’s a great
future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?” which is a classic line than
transcends generations.
Ben escapes back to his bedroom where he looks at the little world in the glass
fish tank, and he is overlooking the pool through bedroom windows (isolation symbolism
of separation looking at life through glass imagery).
Mrs. Robinson (wearing a diaphanous flowing cocktail dress, like a spider web)
floods the room with light when she opens his bedroom door “looking for the bathroom”
but she was eyeing him (like a predatory animal) earlier downstairs at the party. Ben
tells her he would rather be alone, but she insists he drive her home as she says her
husband already left in the car. He offers his new car, and like a challenge of throwing a
gauntlet, she throws the keys in the aquarium. He agrees to take her home after retrieving
the keys out of the aquarium.
He drives her home in his new car, and she lures him into the house, like a
spider’s web. Hmmm. Mrs. Robinson is a cougar! She pours them both drinks (so
60s!!) and Ben is flustered by Mrs. Robinson’s seduction trap as he feels it close in
around him. Mrs. Robinson begins her verbal seduction of Ben by shooting questions at
him” What do you think of me? Did you know I was an alcoholic? Sit down, Benjamin.”
Ben realizes her intentions. “This conversation is getting a little strange.” Mrs. Robinson
closes the trap a little more when she says, “My husband will be back quite late. He
should be gone for several hours.” Ben is shocked and reacts with comments like “Oh
my God, Oh no Mrs. Robinson, Oh, No, Mrs. Robinson, you didn’t - I mean, you didn’t
expect.” Ben barks out “For God’s sake, Mrs. Robinson, here we are, you’ve got me into
home for hours.”
There is the classic cinema shot of Mrs. Robinson’s bent knee, which frames the
well-lit Ben, who then says the immortal line, “Mrs. Robinson, you are trying to seduce
me! Aren’t you!” She tells him she is twice as old as him, symbolic of the Cougar
woman. The dialogue between them is uncomfortable for Ben but smooth and
calculating for Mrs. Robinson. She keeps calling him “Benjamin” in a parental tone. He
keeps calling her “Mrs. Robinson,” like a respectful child. We never know Mrs.
Robinson’s first name.
Upstairs in her daughter Elaine’s pink and white (shrine and virgin-like) bedroom,
she asks him to unzip her dress because she “can’t reach the zipper.” She is wearing
leopard (predator-like) bra and slip. Leopards hunt and kill their prey. He is scared by
her brazen and open intention to seduce him; she knows it and she toys with his fear. He
almost gets away until she insists in a parental tone that he bring her purse upstairs, which
he does to Elaine’s room where Mrs. Robinson is naked, trapping him in the room by
locking the door. Her distorted nakedness is seen in the glass over Elaine’s well-lit
portrait photo (glass symbolism). Ben is so scared, he can only say, “Oh God, let me
out!” She tells him she is available anytime as Ben sees her nakedness. Like a little
child, Ben keeps pleading “Let me out!”
Mr. Robinson arrives home after what appears to have spent a day playing golf.
Hmmm. He wasn’t even at the party! He advises Ben to “sow a few wild oatshave a
good time with the girls” and tells him to call his daughter Elaine when she gets home
Ben celebrates his twenty-first (symbolic of “coming of age”) birthday at a pool
party his parents host for him and, again invite only their friends. Again we see the
“behind/through the glass” imagery as he is decked out in his birthday gift of full scuba
gear, which includes the vision-limiting mask and he can hear no sound but his own
breathing (isolation imagery), he makes his way to the pool and steps in, submerges, and
sees nothing around him, like his life. He tries to break the surface of the water, but his
mother pushes him back in, blurring and distorting his vision of the real world above of
the water. He is alone (isolation imagery), suspended at the bottom of the pool, like the
little scuba man in his aquarium. He is a black isolated figure against the stark blue
background, with his arms outstretched in a crucifixion-like pose.
Ben calls Mrs. Robinson from a glass (imagery) phone booth at the Taft Hotel and
she says she will be there in an hour. A terrific play on words is by the desk clerk when
he asks Ben if he is there for an affair. “The Singleman Party is in the main Ballroom.” I
love it!!
Mrs. Robinson arrives wearing a leopard-spotted coat. Me-ow! Her predatory
image is reflected in the glass top of the cocktail table where Ben waits like a scared
rabbit (my words here). She has obviously done this before because she is smooth and
self assured as she inquires if Ben has gotten a room yet. He walks down the hall which
is lit with sharp contrast spotlights on the carpet and to the room, it is the image of a
Gladiator going into the Coliseum to do battle. In the room he flicks the lights on then
off, closes the blinds to make it darker.
Mrs. Robinson is almost professional in her sexual approach to the act when she
turns on the lights, which he turns off again. He grabs her breast to which she does not
react. He bangs his head on the wall like a child because it is not going like he thinks it
should. As with all guys when experiencing an opportunity like this, he cannot believe
that an older woman is seducing him, aside from the fact she is married and a friend of
his parents. She fishes for compliments, “Don’t you find me attractive?” to which he
replies, “You are the most attractive of all my parents’ friends.” I see an interesting
juxtaposition of Mrs. Robinson in a state of undress with a black and white etching on the
wall behind her of what looks like a prim and proper young Victorian lady looking on.
Fades to darkness with music “Hello Darkness, my old friend”
Aimlessly floating (like his life) on a raft in his parents’ swimming pool, from the
bright sunlight Ben isolates himself behind dark sunglasses to filter out reality. He
spends his dark nights at the Taft with Mrs. Robinson or at his parents’ pool, not caring
that life is passing him by. It is as though his emotions are anesthetized, on life support.
He is living in his parents’ house but he isolates himself from them, physically and
emotionally. Nothing happens to get excited about, there is nothing worth smiling about.
Simon and Garfunkel’s song “April, Come She Will” symbolizes a passing of time in
his life, like the months and seasons, and the pages of a calendar being discarded with no
thought to the loss of time.
Black and white (dark and light) images reinforce the impression that Ben is
going nowhere and is wasting his four years of college. From his parents house, it blends
seamless and uneventful transition between Ben’s two worlds. He is lying on the hotel
bed, in crisp white sheets, in a crucifixion-like pose.
After weeks of sexual trysts, he wants to have a conversation and he turns
on the lights. They talk about Mr. Robinson and she reveals she got pregnant in a car
then they had to marry. When Ben asks what kind of car she got pregnant in. A Ford!
“So old Elaine Robinson got started in a Ford” A classic line! Mrs. Robinson has kept
this entire affair on a superficial level, like a prostitute doing businessno emotions, no
personal information, no interaction outside of the Taft, until Benjamin expresses an
interest in asking Elaine out on a date to which Mrs. Robinson viciously reacts (jealously)
good enough for YOU, but not your daughter.” Ben actually drops a pair and tells her,
“You go straight to hell, Mrs. Robinson. I am not proud that I spend my time with a
broken-down alcoholic.” She extracts a promise from him to never take out Elaine
Robinson.
Ben is forced by his parents into a date with Elaine Robinson while she is home
her seething anger is almost palpable when Ben arrives to pick up Elaine. He attempts to
sabotage the date by being terribly offensive - he wears his sunglasses (isolation
symbolism) at night, drives recklessly, takes her to a cheap stripper joint, and walks ahead
of her. She is embarrassed and offended, she runs crying out of the stripper joint. Ben
apologizes and tells her he was pushed into the date by their parents. He admits that he
isn’t like that and asks her to please stop crying. This is the emotional awakening of Ben
after weeks of a comatose existence (my term). They kiss. They stop for food at a drive-
in and he tries to explain his rude attitude, to which she empathizes. She suggests the
Taft Hotel for drinks (satirical irony) causing him to run over the curb with his car. He is
recognized by the hotel staff who greet him as “Mr. Gladstone”; he is embarrassed and
takes her home. They talk and emotionally start to connect, “you’rethe first person I
could stand to be with” he says. Elaine asks him if he is having an affair to which he
admits it is with an older woman, but says it is all over. Ben and Elaine agree to meet the
next day for a drive, and it is evident a blossoming relationship is beginning to take root.
The distorted image of Ben’s face through the windshield caused by a downpour
(glass and water symbolism) the next day when he goes to pick up Elaine. A black-clad
women’s bare legs run to his car. Mrs. Robinson gets in and threatens to tell Elaine
everything if he continues to see her. He decides to beat her to the confession and runs
back to the Robinson’s house, up the stairs (like a knight ascending a tower) to Elaine’s
room and tells her everything with Mrs. Robinson standing out in the hall. Ben’s best
intentions at honesty backfires and Elaine screams for him to leave. Mrs. Robinson, still
in black, standing in a white hallway like the broken-down alcoholic she is, says
“Goodbye, Benjamin.” It is a like a death knell to many things for many people.
Simon and Garfunkel’s hauntingly beautiful “Scarborough Fair” plays while
Ben drives by the Robinson’s home to catch a glimpse in his rearview mirror (glass
symbolism) of the elusive Elaine, his lost love. He views his parents’ pool from his
bedroom windows (water and glass symbolism). He stands down the street surrounded
drive back to college. He sits at his desk in his room, “Dear ElaineElaineElaine”
written on stark white (and virginal) stationary paper before him. He is a lost soul.
Butall is not lost, or so he believes.
“Scarborough Fair” accompanies his drive to Berkeley in his quest to win the love
of Elaine Robinson. He covertly watches his “lady fair” from afar and longs for her in a
Courtly Love fashion. He takes lodging near campus and takes note of her comings and
goings. He is in awe of her, she is his “Holy Grail.” He follows her to the zoo where
they meet up with Elaine’s date, Carl the med student. They leave Ben by the monkeys to
ponder his fate, with the juxtaposition behind him of an image of a gorilla who also
appears to be deep in thought.
Elaine unexpectedly shows up at the dingy boarding house and he is shocked to
find out that Mrs. Robinson told Elaine that he raped her. He tells her exactly what
happened and reluctantly she believes him. We are shown a genuine sweetness from Ben
for Elaine. He pursues her to get married.
Mr. Robinson shows up at Ben’s dingy room, says he is divorcing his wife.
Ben tells him he loves Elaine to which Mr. Robinson says to NEVER see her again.
Elaine has left school and has left a “Dear John” note for him. He finds out she is getting
married to Carl the med student. Simon and Garfunkel’s song “Mrs. Robinson” plays as
he drives from Berkeley to LA, finds out Elaine is getting married, drives back to
Berkeley to find out where the wedding is taking place (Santa Barbara) and he drives
there. His car runs out of gas almost to the church and he starts to run there. The only
way into the church is through the balcony.
Lit by sunlight from behind, in a crucifixion-like image, he stands in the balcony
behind glass, his hands raised, and despairingly laments seeing Elaine kiss Carl, which
seals the end of the wedding ceremony. He is too late.. Or so we think.
Like cries to heaven, Ben yells Elaine’s name and pounds on the glass that
separates them, interrupting the end of the ceremony. She leaves Carl at the alter and
runs to Ben who uses a gold cross like a sword, hacking, stabbing and thrusting at the
people who would keep him from his Lady Love. He slips the gold cross through the
church’s door handles, preventing anyone from pursuing the young couple as they dash
away from the church and get on the public bus. They have made their escape from what
her parents planned for her. They sit in the back of the bus, bathed in sunshine, and
through the glass, they look back from where they came. Simon and Garfunkel’s
“Sounds of Silence” closes out the movie with Elaine and Benjamin riding off towards an
uncertain and unpredictable future.
Where they do go from here is debatable. Even though Elaine is technically
married to someone else, does she abandon her new husband and make a life with Ben
who has no job and she has no college degree. Have they made a mistake? Should she
have taken the safe road in life and stayed with Carl the med student, like her parents
wanted for her? That’s another possible film entitled The Post-Graduate.
Mrs. Robinson did use Benjamin for her own purposes, lured him in and pounced
on him like the predator she is. She took advantage of the relationship between the
families and used it to her best interests. But she lost out to her younger “cub.”
Works Cited
The Graduate. Dir. Mike Nichols. Perf. Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, and Katharine
Ross. Embassy, 1967. Film.
