"Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me...aren't you?"
---Benjamin Braddock
The basic story that everyone remembers from The Graduate is as follows: a young college graduate named Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) is seduced by one of his parents' friends, an older woman he refers to only as Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). Things get complicated when Benjamin falls for her daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross) who is unaware that her mother has a young lover. When Elaine finds out, the challenge is on for Benjamin to forsake Mrs. Robinson and win Elaine back. However, what is interesting about this particular premise is that Benjamin's love for Elaine seems superficial; therefore his motives are equally questionable.
Many films have been made about people falling in love, losing that love, and then doing everything they can to win it back. For Benjamin, his love for Elaine seems to be more of an obsession than a real love. They only have one date together before she finds out he is sleeping with her mom, and from there he becomes obsessed with this "love" he feels for her when she rejects him. He follows her around and daydreams of a love they could share if he could just win her back. For the first half of the film, Benjamin is a pretty passive character who really has no obvious emotions other than disgust with his parents and their nouveau riche lifestyle with their equally artificial friends. He is emotionally dead around Mrs. Robinson, letting her use him for sex and nothing else, not even simple conversation. The one time he shows anger towards her is when she suggests that he is not good enough for her daughter. Which brings the question: is Benjamin trying to get Elaine back simply to prove Mrs. Robinson wrong about what kind of character he is?
The most telling scene of this problematic love is the last one, where Elaine and Benjamin are on the bus together, looking unsure. They are looking unsure and anxious because they do not know what is next for them, or even what the other person is thinking, realizing they do not know each other very well. It is safe to say Benjamin does not have a plan for what to do with Elaine once he gets her away from that church. He told his parents he wanted to marry her, but how can he when he does not really know her or her wants. An uncertain Benjamin is a reflection of the uncertain times the film was made in and that is probably why so many people from the sixties generation relate to and uphold The Graduate to this day.
FUN FACT: Although Mrs. Robinson is supposed to be the same age as Benjamin's parents, Anne Bancroft was actually only 35 when she filmed this movie and Dustin Hoffman was 29!
FAVORITE QUOTE: "It's like I was playing some kind of game, but the rules don't make any sense to me. They're being made up by all the wrong people. I mean no one makes them up. They seem to make themselves up." ---Benjamin Braddock
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