The Graduate: Subjectivity, Attraction, and Character Roles

Featured analysis by Eva Chang

The Graduate follows Benjamin Braddock and his subsequent misadventures after he returns home from college, as he desperately attempts to find purpose in his future. Accompanying him on these misadventures are Mrs. Robinson, an older family friend who seduces Ben into a friends-with-benefits relationship, and Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine, who Ben ultimately falls in love with—but not before his taboo relationships are exposed. Evidently, the plot is absurd and bombastic, and Ben gets himself into messy and explosive situations that culminate into the film’s message of meaninglessness in Ben’s contemporary society. This theme is further explored by the fluidity of the characters’ decisions and interactions, which are seemingly contrived and excessive. But fluidity manifests in more than just their interactions: it manifests in their perspectives and roles. Notably, Ben, as the protagonist, manipulates his perceptions of Mrs. Robinson and Elaine, to the point that they change roles in the film’s physical plot, driven by his attraction and interest towards them. Ben’s thoughts and feelings create a subjective world around him, and that world is dominated by attraction. His view of both himself and the other characters is hindered by his ideas of romance and love, and ultimately proves that he can only fit them into his own story, into shallow roles that lack a deeper understanding of their personalities and backstories.

Attraction, then, serves as a focal point in the plot: sex and love determine drastic decisions, driving the main conflicts of the story. The characters’ dialogue employs the word “attraction” quite a few times when referencing the three focal characters, determining Ben’s perspective of Mrs. Robinson, Elaine, and himself.

Establishing Roles

Though Ben does not physically meet Elaine in the first act, Mrs. Robinson invites him to look at her portrait. He immediately gauges her by appearance: “Elaine certainly is an attractive girl, isn’t she? I don’t remember her as having brown eyes” (13:57). He is attentive to her looks, proved when he pinpoints the minor detail of her eye colour. However, because of her lack of physical presence in the first act, she remains as a side character in Ben’s narrative, only appearing through dialogue. Ben’s circumstances in the first act do not allow him to know Elaine any better or allow him to see her as fitting into a major role in his life—but he is sure of his attraction to her.

Mrs. Robinson, on the other hand, plays a central role in the first act, acting as a supporting character. Ben also sees her as attractive, but with a caveat. During their first foray together, he says, “oh no, Mrs. Robinson. I think – I think you’re the most attractive of all my parent’s friends” (37:11). Though this taboo may add to a certain kind of attraction, the gap—both in generational mentality and age—stops the two from truly understanding each other. Ben perceives Mrs. Robinson as superficial, having only an interest in sex. Her appearance, too, further indicates this, as her appearance further represents a certain performativity or mirage: dyed hair, clip-on earrings, makeup, carefully planned out movements and dialogue. However, though Mrs. Robinson refuses to talk about her personal life, Ben fails to empathize when she ultimately opens up. However, though Mrs. Robinson refuses to talk about her personal life, Ben fails to empathize when she ultimately opens up.

In a pivotal scene, the audience sees Mrs. Robinson and Ben together in bed. The scene consists of Ben curiously prodding about Mrs. Robinson’s past, while Mrs. Robinson starts resistant but slowly softens up to conversation. They both laugh when Ben remarks, “A Ford! A Ford! Goddamnit, a Ford! That’s great,” indicating a growing closeness between them. However, when Mrs. Robinson criticizes the possibility of Ben and Elaine together, Ben reacts angrily. Mrs. Robinson’s attraction diminishes, in Ben’s eyes, because of both her cold nature and the taboo nature of the relationship—which he remarks as being uncomfortable with. He reaches a certain breaking point during the argument, and though he ends up returning to bed with Mrs. Robinson, he no longer wishes to speak. Though Mrs. Robinson sheds more light on her past than she has so far, Ben fails to empathize because he grows aware of their lack of compatibility, ultimately deciding he does not want to make her a recurring character in his life.

Elaine, on the other hand, is the only person Ben’s age that the film gives the audience the name of in the first act. So far, Ben has been surrounded by those who are his parents’ age, no one that can truly understand how he feels. Elaine is the one traditional lover he could have, and the one person that can understand him. Ben’s attraction towards Elaine in the first act is on the basis of her portrait. Her picture represents an idealization. Ben’s conditional attraction for Mrs. Robinson causes her role in the film to drastically shift as the plot progresses. In the same vein, Ben’s complete infatuation with Elaine allows Elaine to do the same.

Solidifying Roles

The film progresses, not because of character development, but because of Ben’s changing perspectives on the characters— Mrs. Robinson goes from a lead romantic interest to a villain, while Elaine goes from a side character to main supporting role. After Elaine and Ben connect over their date, Elaine soon after learns of Ben and Mrs. Robinson’s relationship. The narrative then quickly flips. As Ben grows an obsession over Elaine and pursues her, Mrs. Robinson, suddenly and completely, exits the plot, only to return as a ‘villain’. Mrs. Robinson, to Ben, is no longer attractive because she stands in the

way between him and Elaine. Their past sexual relationship proves to amount to nothing but a barrier to Ben’s attraction towards Elaine. When Ben and Elaine do actually meet, despite a shaky start, sparks fly. While sitting at a drive-through diner together, Ben, for the first time, can explain his situation without judgment: “I’ve had this feeling – ever since I’ve graduated – this – kind of compulsion that I have to be rude all the time. Do you know what I mean?” (1:02:43). Elaine replies with a brief, “Yes I do” (1:02:47), implying an understanding that surpasses a need for words. In contrast with Mrs. Robinson, whose relationship with Ben consisted of constant tension and misunderstanding, Ben can be attracted to Elaine without any supposed negativity (at least, separate from any family drama). “You’re the first – you’re the first thing for so long that I’ve liked. The first person I could stand with” (1:05:43), he states. Thus, Ben’s subjective world flips upside down. His attention, and subsequently, the plot, is centered on her now. He dedicates himself to tracking her down and proposing, with every decision he makes in the last half of the film dictated around getting to her. Ben’s entire life turns from meandering existential crisis to a manic chase for Elaine. Elaine, plot-wise, is now his main love interest.

How Affection is Won

Mrs. Robinson’s presence completely disappears between when Elaine discovers her relationship with Ben and when Ben breaks into the Robinsons’ home in order to track down Elaine’s wedding location. In hindsight, Ben describes the relationship to Elaine: “It just happened. It was just this thing that happened along with everything else” (1:06:38). In comparison to a possible relationship with Elaine, Mrs. Robinson’s relationship means very little to Ben. When they do finally interact, as Ben sneaks into the Robinsons’ home and finds Mrs. Robinson packing, they argue again—over Elaine. She is now Ben’s antagonist, the woman representing all the physical and metaphorical barricades that exist between Ben and Elaine, and no romance, or even good will, exists between them. In striking similarity with the last time they were in a bedroom together, the two both refuse to budge in their goals. In the final scene, Mrs. Robinson actively opposes everything Ben wants to achieve, grinning and stating, “he’s too late” (1:42:48), when she believes Ben cannot stop the wedding.

Conclusion

The Graduate explores the fluidity in relationships and understanding, told through the lens of a singular, lost college graduate. Ben’s escapades take him to explore the taboo and the untraditional, as he ultimately breaks completely out of the mundanity of the middle-class suburbs when he runs away with Elaine. The film, however, remains to be one of an unreliable narrator. He perceives Mrs. Robinson solely on how she treats him though she proves to have a deeper, empathetic past. He idolizes Elaine to be his love interest and perceives her to be his main love interest. In doing so, he adjusts the entire plot of the film in order to match with his perception of attraction for those he has relationships with. Ben’s story may seem factual, but rather displays a subtle subjectivity that seeps into the plot’s actions.

Work Cited

The Graduate. Directed by Mike Nichols. 1967. Film.