Comparing Jane Austen's Emma 'And Clueless'

Adaptations of Jane Austen’s, Emma, are usually period pieces diligent in capturing and replicating the manners, dress, language and values of the original text. Clueless, written and directed by Amy Heckerling, deviates drastically from the norm, as the film is not a period piece. While Emma is set in the early nineteenth century in the country village of Highbury, sixteen miles out of London, England, Clueless is set in Bronson Alcott High School almost two hundred years later, in the late twentieth century. Despite the significantly different geographical and historical setting and the diverse social values, lifestyles, and issues than those depicted in Emma, Amy Heckerling’s high school setting retains and is

• Amy Heckerling’s teenpic comedy Clueless resonates the ideas, values and cultural assumptions evident in Jane Austen’s Emma

Amy Heckerling’s appropriation of Jane Austen’s, Emma into Clueless; as reflective and satirical parallels of Regency England and contemporary America, substantiate the enhancement of textual, intertextual and contextual meaning; as both become aesthetic replays of each other. By adapting the 19th century, genteel society of Highbury to the 20th century, contemporary microcosm of Beverly Hills, Heckerling gives insight into the realignment of social values and attitudes towards marriage, class and gender roles- an insight provoked by the textual counterparts; Austen’s Emma and Heckerling’s Cher. Ultimately, it is through the mediums of film and literature, and the intertextuality of these two texts that one gets to realise, that despite the

Emma and Clueless are stories with corresponding individuals, but the plot takes place in different centuries. Even though the settings are different the novel, Emma, and the movie, Clueless, are parallel comedies that examine the theme of staying within ones social class. Clueless takes place over a century after Emma, but the “matchmaker” still must come to her own self-realization. People do not always learn from the past, instead they have to experience change on their own to have a realization of their own

Amy Heckerling’s Clueless involves a storyline, which closely follows the text of Jane Austen’s novel Emma. However, there are some key points of difference in the transformation that has taken place. This is due to the individual context of the nineteenth century prose text and that of the modern appropriated film text. The context can be divided into three focal categories, the social, historical and environmental context. In order to be able to address the question, these three groupings must be identified accordingly. Social context refers to the life and

Here, the rigidity of classes is presented to the responder through Elizabeth’s advice to Mr Collins; “[that the] honour must belong to My Darcy, the superior in consequence, to begin the acquaintance”, as he attempts to introduce himself to Mr Darcy. However, Weldon prompts that whilst the characters of the novel conform to this intrinsic value for class centred society, Austen also hints at the disruption of class systems through Mr Darcy’s autonomy; “marrying where he loved and not where he ought”. Here, Weldon asserts that “Jane Austen likes to see the division between nobility and gentry broken down”, in which “Elizabeth Bennet brought neither land nor money to Mr Darcy- but intelligence, vigour and honesty”. Weldon advocates this kind of autonomy in which Elizabeth’s bildungsroman; “till this moment, I never knew myself” highlights her ability to self-reflect and grow. This is compared to the caricature of Mary, who constantly “copies out extracts” from the books she reads, yet ironically, at times “had not the words” to add to a discussion, where Weldon’s notion of “primitive creature” who “knows more and understands less” is highlighted.

Throughout the first chapter, Austen indirectly exhibits Emma’s charming, clever wit in the dialogue but still never directly describes her character. Emma remains a mystery for the first few chapters. Finally, in chapter five, the readers get the first true physical description of Emma from

We live in a period where change is considered a common occurrence, but in society, how much is really changed, and how much remains the same? Through the transformation of Austen’s 19th century novel, Emma to Heckerling’s ‘teenpick’ film Clueless we are able to gain an insight into the unchanging nature of our values. Heckerling effectively modernizes and adapts the values explored in Emma through the identification of social hierarchies, gender roles and moral reformation in modern society. In doing so she connects 19th century regency values with the values of 1990’s America. This transformation not only allows us to draw connections about modern society but also provides further understanding of the themes and values explored in Emma, and

So I watched both Clueless and Aisha (Bollywood) and tried to write up the connection I felt watching both the movies; but while searching for the movie to watch I came up with yet another interesting fact that these both are the modern version of “Emma”(by Jane Austen). Well I have not gone through ‘Emma’ but then researched about the characters in it and what are its connection with these two movies (“Clueless” and “Aisha”) and up with the brief summary.

If people focused too much on their own success, society would crumble. His outspokenness against the French Revolution for just this factor led to the demise of his political career. But he was proven right when many atrocities took place in the name of progress. His conservative ideas also apply to the more gradual breakdown of British society over the following century. By the time Jane Austen published Emma in 1816, marked changes had occurred within British society. Austen’s portrayal of small community life chronicles the decline of what Frohnen calls the “conservative good life” emphasized by Burke. Characters in Austen’s work reflect a society struggling with value systems that were slipping away. In Austen’s Emma, her character George Knightley upholds the aristocratic tradition of British society despite the impact of people in his own class who acted against the welfare of the community.

Emma, by Jane Austen, focuses on the life of Emma Woodhouse, heiress to the wealth and importance of her father’s mansion, Hartfield. The story takes place sometime in eighteenth century England in the populous village of Highbury, where Emma lives with her father in their mansion, Hartfield.

Jane Austen, writing in the Regency period of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, was incredibly skilled at weaving narrative with contemporary social commentary. She creates detailed stories and characters who interact uniquely with the world around them in the novels Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. One of the most subtle and interesting ways in which she creates impressions in her work is by weaving literature and reading into her narratives. In doing this, she creates a depth in her work which almost escapes notice until closer inspection, yet gives an undeniable impression in the views and ideas of her readers. This essay will explore the various aspects of Austen’s novels, and the society

Jane Austen’s Emma is a novel dominated by obvious themes like romantic love, gender roles, and family. These themes structure the novel wholly, but deeper down, there are less noticeable themes that are significant in themselves. In Emma, the overlooked theme of characters’ encounters with strangers plays a critical role because of its addition to the reader’s perspectives to multiple aspects of the novel. Encounters with strangers are important because, first, it demonstrates that strangeness, when unsettling the conditions of society’s communication, makes familiarity more attractive to an individual. Second, after evaluating the society’s treatment of strangers in the setting of the town of Highbury, it becomes clear that the theme and novel endorse a conservative, simple society. The instances of encounters with strangers in Emma are used to manipulate the reader in order to convince them that Highbury’s entire society needs new faces or new news to gossip about. Upon evaluating Emma’s two most prominent strangers, Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax, and their encounters amongst society highlight the importance of which positive qualities are more attractive when temporary, and which qualities are more attractive over time.

In Jane Austen’s Emma, Emma Woodhouse is depicted as a flawed heroine, who thrives on interfering in the romantic relationships of others, while neglecting the possibility of whether she may want one herself. Throughout the story, Emma’s self-transformation from an arrogant wealthy girl to a competent woman conveys how she progresses from the endeavors with the people she got involved with. However, it was with her flaws that she was able to grow from self-delusion to self-awareness and learn to see the truth, not necessarily just what she wants to see. Thus, it is evident through the character of Emma, the novel represents the ways self-deception is a key element of conscious awareness.

Culture and society play a large role in the opinions and worldviews of a person. This is evident in Emma, as Austen uses a unique narrative style to illustrate the power of societal control. The plot of the novel focuses mainly on the theme of strategic matchmaking, however it can also serve as a catalyst to demonstrate the idea of societal authority presented in the novel. There is an emphasis on the Evangelical ideas of strength in community, and in the Lockean ideas of the social order. THESIS