Benjamin Braddock
The eponymous graduate is Benjamin Braddock, who has returned home to the west coast after graduating from college. Benjamin is well educated and enjoys the privileges of his upper middle class upbringing, taking the summer to decide what he wants to do with his life, and wandering around rather aimlessly. In fact, the prospect of a career seems to significantly contribute to Benjamin's malaise. His a lack of ambition, low self-esteem, and disillusionment with the adult world lead him into a scandalous affair with the wife of his father's business partner, Mrs. Robinson.
Benjamin is comically anxious, too smart and critical for his own good, and a free spirit without being outwardly rebellious. He wants a life that transcends the corporate scripts followed by his parents, but he does not quite know how to achieve this. In spite of his anxiety and the dramatic events of his life, he is also a good problem solver, and passionate about his love for Elaine, who he pursues ardently and shamelessly.
Mrs. Robinson
Mrs. Robinson is the wife of Mr. Robinson, Benjamin's father's business partner, and a close family friend of the Braddocks. She saw Benjamin grow up, which makes their affair all the more scandalous. Mrs. Robinson is a bored, cynical and seductive older woman who is a self-professed alcoholic, a chainsmoker, and a world-weary housewife. After Benjamin presses Mrs. Robinson about her life, she reveals that she was once an art student, but married Mr. Robinson after he got her pregnant with their daughter Elaine. Mrs. Robinson is disappointed with the way her life turned out, which makes her ruthless, bitter, and vengeful.
Benjamin is simultaneously shocked, excited and repulsed by Mrs. Robinson’s attempt to seduce him following his graduation party. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Mrs. Robinson uses her wry and sophisticated persona to incite Benjamin's desire. She is at once terrifying and mesmerizing, cruel yet humorous. Mrs. Robinson's sexual advances provide an outlet for Benjamin in a wayward period, and he provides her with a sexual thrill that her husband cannot meet, but when Benjamin wants to date her daughter, Mrs. Robinson's claws come out, and she becomes a heartless antagonist.
Elaine Robinson
Elaine is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robinson. She has been away at Berkeley, and it has been some time since Benjamin last saw her. After Benjamin is pressured by his parents into taking Elaine out, Benjamin purposely tries to sabotage the date before realizing how easily he can connect with Elaine. Elaine is bright, sweet, beautiful, and earnest, an exact counterpart of her mother's grizzled detachment.
As sweet and sensitive as Elaine is—she cries at the sight of a strip club—she is also wise and emotionally intelligent, confronting Benjamin and trying to understand how the scandalous affair transpired, and weighing all sides of the story in hopes of better understanding the event. She also shares Benjamin's desire to escape their scripted suburban futures, running from her own wedding to embark on an uncertain future with an imperfect partner. While she could have married the square and dutiful Carl, she chooses Benjamin in a leap of faith, trusting their intellectual and philosophical connection more than her drive for security.
Mr. Robinson
The father of Elaine and husband of Mrs. Robinson, Mr. Robinson looks enviously on Benjamin's youth and freedom. He gives Benjamin the advice to relax and use his post-graduate freedom to sleep around. Mr. Robinson urges Benjamin, man-to-man, that his experimental experiences will make it easier for him to make the right choice when it is time to get serious and settle down with a wife. When we learn that Mr. and Mrs. Robinson were pressured into marriage because of a pregnancy, this advice makes more sense.
Mr. Robinson comes off as a kind and encouraging man in the beginning of the film, but when he learns about Benjamin's affair with his wife, his short temper and vengeful character is revealed. While he insists to Benjamin that they are both adults and should be able to settle the matter civilly, he flies off the handle when Benjamin admits his love for Elaine.
Mr. McGuire
Mr. McGuire is another friend of the family with some advice for Benjamin. Mr. McGuire sums up a lifetime’s worth of knowledge with just one word that has gone down in movie quote history: “Plastics.” Mr. McGuire represents the kind of inauthentic and unimaginative life spent working for a corporation that Benjamin does not want. Mr. McGuire cannot give any substantive advice, only urge Benjamin to get a job in the plastics industry.
Carl
Carl does not have much on-screen time, but he plays a major role in the dramatic event of the film: Elaine's other suitor, and eventually husband-to-be. He is a dutiful and bland fraternity brother who is also the son of Elaine's parents' friends. Benjamin thinks of him as a boring jock, who is unworthy of Elaine's love. Carl represents the kind of college graduate who is anything but aimless, who has all his ducks in a row and knows how to get what he wants. Ironically enough, however, he loses his bride on his wedding day.
Mr. Braddock
Benjamin's father is a strict and enthusiastic man, who just wants to see Benjamin find some direction in his life. When Benjamin first arrives home, his father celebrates his accomplishments wholeheartedly, but when Benjamin fails to pick a direction or a professional path, Mr. Braddock grows impatient and disapproving.
Mrs. Braddock
Benjamin's mother, who senses that he is having an affair with someone. When she questions him about it, he denies it, but she seems to maintain her suspicions. She, like his father, wants desperately for Benjamin to pick a path in life, and she is maniacally overjoyed when Ben announces that he wants to marry Elaine Robinson.
Mr. McCleery
The landlord at the rooming house that Benjamin stays in in Berkeley. He is consistently suspicious of Benjamin and eventually kicks him out angrily.
Room Clerk
The room clerk at the Taft Hotel, who is confused by Benjamin's nervous antics.
