Simon & Garfunkel: Mrs. Robinson Meaning

Mrs. Robinson Lyrics

And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson,
Jesus loves you more than you will know.
God bless you, please Mrs. Robinson.
Heaven holds a place for those who pray,
Hey, hey, hey

We'd like to know a little bit about your for our files
We'd like to...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jul 7th 2012 !⃝

   I think the song is highly sarcastic regarding the nature of "drug problems." The song states various snippets you might hear in a rehab like facility and society's view of people who abuse substances.
   
   "All around you are sympathetic eyes."- Referring to the fact that there are people who are willing to help you through this. This is ironic because this is usually their job and they really don't care.
   
   "We'd like to know a little bit about you for our files." - An obvious statement. The institution pretends to take an interest, but really only need your information.
   
   "Heaven holds a place for those who pray." - That God can solve all problems. Believe what we believe.
   
   "Take a stroll around the grounds until you feel at home." - It seems to be expected that one quick walk around will institute feelings of happiness and a new home, all the while disregarding the old one.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   simone

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 2nd 2009 !⃝

   In the late 1960s while in a music class at school our teacher informed us that the song related to an elderly lady who had just been placed in a nursing home by her family. Listen to the song with this interpretation in your mind and see how it pans out. I've always believed this to be accurate. Christopher
3. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 26th 2022 !⃝

   
   Joe DiMaggio is emblematic of the era of American innocence, before the '60s counterculture movement. He was considered a clean-cut, All-American male hero. In reality, he beat Marilyn and abandoned his son who ended up living on the street - but that wasn't known at the time.
   
   Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio? =
   Where have you gone America's innocence? The world is changing - fast - and I'm not sure I like it...
   
   Joltin' Joe has left and gone away =
   That period of history is gone and it's never coming back.
   
   
4. rlpkrd

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 26th 2018 !⃝

   I just watched Dark Angel which aired on PBS - In it Mary Ann Cotton states she would always be "MRS. JAMES ROBINSON" - could it be Simon & Garfunkel's music is based on old documentary's?
   
   There was little sympathy for Mary Ann Cotton (aka: Mrs. Robinson). Britian's first woman convicted of the murder of her seven-year old stepson, she was also suspected of killing with arsenic as many as 20 others – including her mother, several of her children and stepchildren, three husbands, a lover and a friend.
   The song follows the story exactly - the part about Joe DiMaggio was added with a thought maybe he was murdered too.
5. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Nov 6th 2017 !⃝

   Iris Robinson was an Irish politician and married toIreland's First Prime Minister. She claimed to be a born again Christian, and made strong anti-homosexual statements.
   
   She retired from politics after suffering from mental health issues, and was subsequently discovered at the age of 59 to be having an affair with a 19 year-old man-boy; and she used her position to try and help him get a start in the business world.
   
   Match that against the lyrics!
6. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 28th 2012 !⃝

   I suppose only Paul and Art could ever tell us. If you think of the main premise of the movie it's simple to get the meaning of the song. Mrs. Robinson wanted gratification. Ok, here's my take. The "Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio line" followed by "a nation turns it's lonely eyes to you" does not refer to the man himself but rather his ability to hit "home runs" wink, wink, nudge, nudge. One in his profession might also be called "slugger" and his main implement was made of wood. Mrs. Robinson is missing her...ahem...slugger. Other lines "We'd like to help you learn to help yourself.Look around you all you see are sympathetic eyes,Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home." These be encouraging Mrs. R. to help herself in the absence of her "slugger". In other words, masturbate. Also, there's the lines referring to a "hiding place where no one ever goes" until she met Ben, he went there, "...hide it from the kids..." Which these lines could refer to just about anothing illicit like drugs or alchohol, but taken in the context of the song, it might be a secret "toy" not meant for the kids. I gotta laugh every time I hear the song.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Aug 22nd 2011 !⃝

   This song is about many facets of the state of our country in the 60s. Mrs. Robinson was originally supposed to be Mrs. Roosevelt, named after the First Lady. The next lines after the chorus are referring to "Big Brother". The government was really just starting to get into invading everyone's privacy. It means, this is your future, get use to it. After the next chorus, the song is referring to many different things, pot, booze, pills, affairs, even true feelings and opinions the parents might have. They are the adults, they can't let their kids know they basically do they same things they do. One had to preserve appearances. The next first is obvious;about the state of politics in the US at the time. The reference to Joe DiMaggio was about how he was a hero, a good and honest and moral man, how he wasn't out there any more for people to look to. Alo, it was not completely literal, meaning where have all the good guys gone?
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Aug 5th 2011 !⃝

   The song "Mrs. Robinson" is used in the 1967 movie "The Graduate". At the end of the film, the lead character, Benjamin (played by Dustin Hoffman), runs off with the daughter of Mrs. Robinson, an older woman with whom Benjamin had been having an affair. It is plausible that the song takes off from where the movie ends. One could imagine that Mrs. Robinson, having lost both her lover and her daughter, goes insane. The song paints a picture of someone in some sort of benign asylum or rehab facility.
   
   Intake: "We'd like to know a little bit about your for our files
   We'd like to help you learn to help yourself.
   Look around you all you see are sympathetic eyes,
   Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home."
9. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 4th 2011 !⃝

   What follows is an excerpt from the official Joe Dimaggio website. I don't know and don't pretend to know the real meaning of the lyrics and think they'll probably be taken to the grave, see Art Garfunkel in Heaven and see if he's willing to reveal them then. It is possible that they may have been made to fit, or it may be that there is something about Bo Jangles Robinson's wife or mother that is privvy to Art and Joe. It may also be that it's their business and noone elses. But have a read and see what you think. I was learning the song as a beginner on the guitar and just wondered, I'll probably leave it there and won't come here again but if you have an opinion on this then email me at thewick@hotmail.com. The article :In 1941, as America readied itself for war, DiMaggio began the greatest feat in American sports. His 56 game hitting streak captivated the country, and the nations eyes turned to him. As DiMaggio kept hitting safely, radio announcers kept an excited America informed, Bo jangles Robinson danced on the Yankee dugout roof for good luck and Les Brown recorded “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio…we want you on our side.”
10. FibroFox

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Mar 11th 2011 !⃝

    Reguardless of the fact that this song was orig.written for Elanor Roosavelt,Anyone who has seen the Graduate would probabally conclude that the Lyrics seem to imply a dysfunctional mind as well as a dysfunction relationship, for this Decade.
    I believe that they're referring to Mrs.Robinson having a break down, And there's no doubt that drugs aren't involved.
    As far as Joe D. He was a very well-Respected athlete.And all-Around nice guy.
    He was obviously looked up to.
    Finally,Anyone Who Is really Christian would be insulted The mocking of our LORD.
    As far as the lovely Mrs.Roosavelt I believe this song should be re-done to honor her.
11. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Nov 13th 2009 !⃝

    It's such a beautiful song, originally intended for Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one of the best Presidents we've ever had, if not the best. And she herself was such a wonderful, lovely 1st Lady, thus the title, "Mrs. Roosevelt". If you listen to the lyrics, it makes sense. The whole song was changed and distorted because of some contract that the musicians had signed to make a song for a movie which they didn't make in time, so they took this lovely song and distorted everything just to suit that ridiculous movie. It had such a great message, relating to the 32nd President and his wife, I would like to see the song re-done to reflect the original intentions of the song writer. It really should be done, for historical and aesthetic reasons, or just to be fair.
12. simone

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    May 29th 2009 !⃝

    The above 'author' needs to take his medication, and have a good lie down.
13. thegucciconspiracy

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    May 27th 2009 !⃝

    you all have it way wrong. this song is about marylin monroe's death. they're saying GOD bless her, because she was murdered. by the kennedy's. it was a conspiracy against her because she knew too much. when referring to a secret, it was the secret that she figured out when no one else knew, also a secret like her affairs with both,robert kennedy, and j.f.k. Joe dimaggio was her second husband who knew and stuck with the fact that the kennedy's killed her. even tho she was killed months after her and joe's breakup, " where is joe dimaggio?"- implying that he left her. and when she was "sitting on the sofa on a sunday afternoon"- she was actually laying dead with a bottle of pills in her hand(it was staged, a fake o.d. to coverup for her murder), and the day she died, which was august 5,1962, a SUNDAY. and "everyway you look at this you lose"- implies that it was inevetable. if you know too much and the gov. doesn't want to be exposed.the government, or people of higher power will put you out. thats the reality of this sick world
14. m320753

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jul 28th 2008 !⃝

    In reference to where have you gone Joe DiMaggio is sung in praise,that's true Joe D. As some would call him was a man of honest virtues who gave 110% of himself every day in all he did and misunderstanding the song thought he was being ridiculed and was offended that his name was being dirtied.
    
    His was such a career that he was also named the Yankee clipper as the clipper was the best sail boat of its time. Joe D retired early because he was near the end of his top game and didn't want anybody to see him at less than his best quoting "some child will come to a ballgame that I'm in and it may be the only game he will ever see, I have to give it all for that reason." After he retired and married Marilyn Monroe he went to Korea with her and was mad because she was so late coming back from the u.s.o. Show and she said Joe you don't know what it's like having 50,000 people shouting your name and he answered oh yes I do well anyway that's what where have you gone Joe DiMaggio m
15. m320753

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jul 28th 2008 !⃝

    Joe DiMaggio was the most humble and also one of the very best ballplayers to ever live. He was honest truthful and harder on himself to not embarrass his family name too bad he wasn't playing now he would sure take some of these prima donnas off their pedestals.
16. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jul 21st 2008 !⃝

    It seems like they are praising Mrs Robinson for doing her thing and keeping it to herself. Like she is the only one who has the guts to do what she wants cause she knows she can hide it. The whole Joe DiMaggio line I think shows that the American nation are like puppets and follow their idols, but not Mrs Robinson they want to make her the next Joe DiMaggio so people will learn to just do their thing "we'd like to help you learn to help yourself" I think is directed towards America.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
17. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jan 25th 2008 !⃝

    I don't think you should hate someone because the don't like a song you listen too. anyways it does seem a bit lame that the song was just written for a movie but it would help you case if you used solid facts to explain your alternate meening

Latest Articles

• 
  A new era for Millennial favorite, Linkin Park
• 
  Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable
• 
  Dolly, we need you
• 
  The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media
• 
  The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s
• 
  Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)