Guide Mentor

Character Role Analysis

Mr. Robinson

Technically, Mr. Robinson is not Benjamin's mentor. Clearly, he wouldn't coach him through an affair with his own wife. Ben doesn't really have a mentor, but he's desperately in need of one. But Mr. Robinson does appear at the same moment in the movie in which the mentor would appear, and gives some mentorly advice—though it's doused in about ten gallons of extra-viscous irony. This is the relevant piece of dialogue:

MR. ROBINSON: So I hope you won't mind my giving you a friendly piece of advice.BENJAMIN: I'd like to hear it.

MR. ROBINSON: Ben—I think—I think you ought to be taking it a little easier right now than you seem to. Sow a few wild oats. Take things as they come. Have a good time with the girls and so forth.

If Benjamin had found just one person who could have helped him figure out his life, then he wouldn't have had to start an affair with Mrs. Robinson. But then, we wouldn't have a movie. Maybe it's all for the best.