Daily Dialogue — March 16, 2017

Mrs. Robinson: Drive down the block.
Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, Elaine I have a date. We’re going for a drive.
Mrs. Robinson: Do exactly as I say. [He starts to drive] Listen to me very carefully, Benjamin. You are not to see Elaine again, ever. Those are my orders. Is that clear?
Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, do you think -
Mrs. Robinson: I can makes things quite unpleasant. 
Benjamin: How?
Mrs. Robinson: In order to keep Elaine away from you, I am prepared to tell her everything.
Benjamin: I don’t believe you.
Mrs. Robinson: Then you’d better start believing me. 
Benjamin: I just don’t believe you would do that. 
Mrs. Robinson: Try me.

— The Graduate (1967), screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, novel by Charles Webb

The Daily Dialogue theme this week: Jealousy, suggested by Shannon Corbeil.

Trivia: None of the older characters is called by a first name in the film; only the younger characters of Benjamin, Elaine and Carl do, increasing the sense of a generation gap.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Perhaps some of Mrs. Robinson’s attempts to keep Ben away from Elaine derives from her maternal instinct to protect her daughter. But I’m thinking most of what drives her threat to expose her affair with Ben is pure unadulterated — pun intended — jealousy.