HELEN SIMS discusses the contemporary relevance of The Graduate. From novel to iconic film, it currently endures as a stage incarnation at Downstage Theatre in Wellington.


THE DESIGNATION of a work as iconic seems to obscure objective enquiry into its modern relevance. Watching The Graduate at Downstage was entertaining enough, but made me wonder what this story really has to “tell” someone close to Ben Braddock’s age and situation 40 years after the film, its most famous manifestation, appeared and “defined a generation”. Downstage claims in their publicity material that the story has “stood the test of time”. The stageplay was written in 2000 and has been performed on Broadway and the West End. Obviously someone still thinks this story is relevant and has something to say about society. Two possible themes that are still relevant suggested themselves to me – firstly the “quarter life crisis” and secondly the issue of gender relations and sexuality.

The Quarter Life Crisis

An obvious theme is throwing off conventional structures of authority – family, marriage, religion, (in the final scenes Ben fends off Elaine’s family with a cross) and institutionalised education. In turn, the loss of these anchors leaves Ben confused and adrift. This reminded me of the ‘quarter life crisis’ phenomenon that has been given some press lately – anxiety and depression striking those in their mid-twenties, who finished with university have no sense of direction in their lives, and find themselves falling short of society’s expected milestones.

Ben Braddock is meant to be 21 and a fresh college graduate. He has an On the Road Kerouac moment in the book and stage play (although not in the film) where he takes off with only the clothes on his back and change in his pocket to be at one with the land and the people that work upon it. Given that he was made to wear a scuba suit at his graduation party, a desire to escape his parents is understandable. He is struggling to make the separation between child and parents – university seems to hold the relationship in limbo for a while, but the break inevitably comes. Ben describes the feeling thus:

I’ve had this feeling ever since I graduated. This kind of compulsion that I have to be rude all the time... 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.

This issue may be timeless – every generation is determined not to turn into their parents. The ‘quarter life crisis’ seems to be only the latest expression, compounded by huge student loans and changing values in regard to marriage, children and home ownership.


“Playing Mrs Robinson” – gender and sexuality in The Graduate

A general discomfort with sexuality is expressed in The Graduate, especially the sexuality of a mature woman. This is portrayed as “wrong”, in opposition to the “right” expression of sexuality between the two young people. Perhaps this is why in the casting of Mrs Robinson a “recognised hottie” older woman is sought – Kathleen Turner, Lorraine Bracco, Jerry Hall, Morgan Fairchild and Linda Grey have all played Mrs Robinson on stage. Anne Bancroft immortalised the role on film. But she is made to look predatory and have considerable emotional problems (alcoholism). This is aggravated by her lack of independent identity – Mrs Robinson doesn’t even have a first name (although in the book it is indicated that her first initial is “G”). This has lead to considerable criticism of the portrayal of female sexuality in the film, especially by feminists.

In the stage play there is the strong implication that most people had to get drunk in order to express sexual desires, and were the subject of emotional manipulation (Mrs Robinson of Ben; Ben of Elaine). When Ben expresses reserves about sleeping with Mrs Robinson again in the hotel room (“What would my parents think?”) Mrs Robinson teases Ben about being a virgin in order to get Ben to assert his sexual prowess. She plays on the shamefulness of male virginity as “inadequate”. This outrages Ben and he has sex with her to prove that he is not inadequate.

Ben initially responds to Mrs Robinson’s offer of an affair as a way of revolting against the materialistic existence offered by his parents and their friends. Their affair takes place in a hotel room, shutting out the external world. Later, sex with Mrs Robinson seems to have a deadening effect on Ben. This is in contrast to the awakening effect Elaine Robinson, as a pure, virginal female, has on Ben.

Ben’s treatment and pursuit of Elaine has also been the subject of criticism. Ben rejects Mrs Robinson in favour of her daughter Elaine. His interest in Elaine seems to be sparked mostly by Mrs Robinson designating the subject as verboten between them rather than out of genuine love or respect. Mrs Robinson vehemently insists that Ben not take Elaine out on the date that Mr Robinson is so keen to set up. When Ben “rescues” Elaine from her marriage to the more suitable Carl Smith it is questionable whether they really love each other or whether they are both defying their parents’ expectations and see each other as a vehicle for escape. The final image in the film shows Ben and Elaine on the back of a public bus, separated from their parents, but distant from each other. The stageplay seeks to solve some of the ambiguity of the future success of their relationship by closing with them sitting on a hotel bed eating a favourite breakfast cereal together, rather than engaging in tawdry hotel room sex (in contrast to Ben’s relationship with Mrs Robinson). The more recent version is in this way more conservative than the original on the issue of sex – the younger couple’s relationship is affirmed as the more healthy and productive one. The division between the two women is summed up by their exchange in the church after Ben interrupts Elaine’s wedding:

Mrs Robinson: It’s too late.
Elaine: Not for me.

Ultimately someone in their twenties in the “Noughties” can identify with being adrift and feeling alienated and confused by prevailing social and sexual mores. The sense of wanting to make a break from the sense of our parent’s past, but being unsure of the direction that change should take leads to confusion and frustration. It seems to be a classic problem of being educated and middle class; of having too many options.

One would hope that the conception of female sexuality has moved on from how it was portrayed in The Graduate. Or maybe not. There still seems to be something ‘wrong’ with a woman who aggressively pursues sex/sexual desires. The contrast between Mrs Robinson and Elaine is between psychologically disturbed tramp and pure prude.


The first issue seems to be more universal to Western culture, although we experience different manifestations of it. The second is thrown up by subsequent experience with feminism (and post-constructivist theories about sex), and highlights an out of date conception of female sexuality that should be resisted. Perhaps we now conceive of society in a more polymorphous way – everyone in The Graduate is white and comfortable, and this is what makes some of its treatment of issues seem out of date. On the flipside, it is disturbing to think about how many of the same issues are still with society forty years on.

Downstage’s production of The Graduate continues until April 28.

See also:
» The Graduate (Reviewed by Melody Nixon)
» The Graduate (Reviewed by Simon Sweetman