The main character of *Manchester by the Sea* (2016) is **Lee Chandler**, portrayed by **Casey Affleck** in a performance that earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Lee is a profoundly depressed and emotionally shut-off janitor living in a basement apartment in Quincy, Massachusetts. He is forced to return to his hometown of Manchester-by-the-Sea after his older brother, Joe, dies of heart failure and names Lee the legal guardian of his teenage nephew, Patrick. The film uses non-linear storytelling to reveal that Lee’s shell-shocked demeanor is the result of a horrific past tragedy in the same town: a house fire he accidentally started, which killed his three young children.
Here are his most memorable lines and the specific contexts that make them so impactful:
### 1. "I can’t beat it. I can’t beat it. I’m sorry."
* **The Context:** This is the emotional climax and the most famous line of the film. It occurs near the end of the movie when Lee tells Patrick that he cannot stay in Manchester to be his guardian.
* **Significance:** Most Hollywood dramas follow a "healing arc" where the protagonist eventually overcomes their trauma. This line is devastating because it rejects that trope. Lee acknowledges that his grief and guilt are so all-consuming that he simply cannot function in the town where his children died. It is a raw admission of defeat that encapsulates the film's central theme: some things in life are too heavy to ever truly get over.
### 2. "There’s nothing there. There’s nothing there."
* **The Context:** Spoken during an accidental encounter on the street with his ex-wife, Randi (Michelle Williams). Randi, who has since remarried and had another child, tearfully tries to apologize for the "terrible things" she said to him after the fire and tells him she still loves him.
* **Significance:** As Randi pours her heart out, Lee is visibly trembling and unable to process the emotion. He stammers these words to shut down the conversation, not out of malice, but because he is an emotional void. He believes his soul died in the fire, leaving "nothing" left to salvage or discuss.
### 3. "So I can go?"
* **The Context:** In a flashback to the police station immediately following the fire, Lee explains to the detectives that he forgot to put the screen on the fireplace before walking to the store. The police tell him they aren't going to file charges because it was a tragic accident.
* **Significance:** Lee’s flat, horrified response—"So I can go?"—reveals his immediate self-loathing. He feels he deserves to be punished or imprisoned for what he did. When he realizes he is free to leave, he immediately grabs an officer’s handgun and tries to shoot himself in the head, only to be tackled.
### 4. "I’m just a backup."
* **The Context:** When Lee first meets with his brother’s lawyer and hears that he has been named Patrick's guardian, he reacts with disbelief and panic. He tells the lawyer, "I'm just a backup," referring to his belief that Joe must have had someone else in mind.
* **Significance:** This line highlights Lee’s total lack of self-worth. He cannot conceive of himself as a protector or a father figure after failing his own children, and the idea of being "the one" in charge of a life is terrifying to him.
### 5. "If you could take one guy on an island with you... who would you take?"
* **The Context:** In a heartwarming flashback on Joe’s boat, a younger, happier Lee asks a young Patrick who he would want with him on a deserted island: his father or his Uncle Lee? When young Patrick chooses his dad, Lee jokingly says, "I don't think you’re wrong about that."
* **Significance:** This line serves as a painful contrast to the "I can't beat it" scene. It shows the vibrant, loving man Lee used to be before the tragedy, making his eventual transformation into a "ghost" much more tragic.