The Graduate Marriage Quotes

We get to see that Mrs. Robinson is more than just some wacky cougar who likes to seduce younger men. She has sadder and more serious reasons for doing what she's doing: she married someone she didn't love because of an unplanned pregnancy. What's striking about this scene is that Benjamin, coming of age during the sexual revolution, doesn't immediately catch her drift. When he finally does, he doesn't see the tragic element of it; he thinks it's cool that Elaine "got started" in the back of a Ford.

Is this any more of a promising start to a marriage than getting a girl pregnant and "having to" get married?

Elaine probably does like Ben's personality (at least, after he stopped acting like a jerk during the strip club scene). She only dislikes him because—you know—he had an affair with her mother (and is indirectly responsible for instigating her parents' divorce). Benjamin, who's all about honesty and real connection, is taking this step totally unilaterally. He's starting to look a little off his rocker.

Elaine's starting to crack, coming closer to admitting that she really does love Ben. In order to do it, she has to marry a guy who had an affair with her mother. It's not looking like the greatest idea in the world, in our humble opinion. There have to be other motivations at work here apart from affection for Ben, who she barely knows.

Elaine's testing Ben's passion. How badly does he really want to marry her? When he crashes her wedding at the end, he confirms how extremely serious he really is about her.

Elaine says she told Carl she might marry him; she tells Ben she might marry him. Elaine's caught between what her parents want for her and what she might want for herself. She's not really sure which way to go. Some guys would turn and run immediately in this situation, but Ben stays in pursuit. You get the impression that something else is going on with Elaine other than trying to decide who to marry.

Ben thinks Carl's "pretty good team" line is ridiculous because it's utterly devoid of passion. Carl isn't desperately in love, he just wants someone he can reasonably function with (at least, that's how Ben sees it). It confirms Ben's idea of the staleness and emptiness of his parents' idea of marriage.

The frat brother's joke makes Carl sound like some sort of degenerate. (In case you don't know, a shotgun wedding is a wedding in which the groom has already gotten the bride pregnant—and hence is forced to marry her, gunpoint being the exaggerated reality of the coercion.) They already called Carl "the make-out king," so Ben is pretty protective of Elaine at this point. This exchange reminds us of how Mrs. Robinson got married because she was pregnant with Elaine.