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

The lack of sentimentality towards the institution of marriage is initially explored when Cher has a familial conversation with her father. A close up of Cher’s complaining facial expression while saying “you were hardly even married to her” is definitely indicative of how there is a discernible lack of sentimentality towards marriage in this day and age. Divorce is accepted and so too are multiple marriages that might have short durations. This relaxed attitude towards romantic relationships is emphasised when Cher mentions how “showing a little skin… makes them (guys) think of sex”. Her voiceover simply represents how the modern attitude towards marriage connects with the pressure women faced in Emma to marry. Within the “car scene”, a close up of Elton repeatedly attempting to kiss Cher displays how in effect society believes that relationships are based on shallow sentiment and lustful feelings. This is consistent with how Emma exclaims to Harriet that “she will be confined to the society of the illiterate” if she agrees to the proposal because of love. However, the fact that Cher indirectly mentions how lust is an integral part of relationships mean that morals, not social class or education, determine the direction of relationships. Hence, an appropriation provides similar insights into unchanged behaviours over a long period of

Jane Austen provides her readers with insight into marriage and English society within the 1800’s. In Emma, the story establishes the idea that society could not function without marriage and how the institution of marriage defined one’s social status.

A Comparison of Emma by Jane Austen and Movie Clueless The film Clueless, written and directed by Amy Heckerling, is an adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Emma and closely parallels the story in terms of character development and action. Although Emma was written in 1816 and developed ideas and issues of that period in time, 180 years on we can still recognize and identify with the exact same issues. This just proves that despite all the radical social changes that have taken place since Jane Austen's time, people and life haven't really changed all that much. The general life issues of money, love, friendship, class and finding ones place in the world are raised in both texts.

Jane Austen’s novel 'Emma' and Amy Heckerling’s Clueless, as significant and satirical reflections of Regency England and postmodern America respectively, indicate how the transformation process can shape and improve literacy, intertextual and logical importance. The transformation is evident in the compositions Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ and Amy Heckerling’s ‘Clueless’ enabling us to investigate the assortment of logical subjects. Regarding ‘Emma’ the perspective throughout the Regency time frame examines the strict values of love and marriage inside the inflexible social hierarchy. Austen’s advances the significance of etiquette throughout the text. Austen reveals a neo-women’s activist perspective, shown in the female protagonist revealing the female protagonists’ scholarly capacity and social equity in an otherwise patriarchal society. However, the close resemblance of the story; ‘Clueless’, Heckerling composition conveys entirely transformed values, reflected through the actions of the current upper-working class of contemporary Los Angeles. The critical analysis of commercialism in the informal social class system of modern America reiterating social expectations of gender and social characterisation within the microcosm of the typical American educational system. The transformation in attitudes of Austen, reveals an exhaustive utilisation of setting, a close examination of dialect and various artistic procedure.

After she and Tai get into an argument, Cher realizes her own flaws and makes changes to herself to become a better person. When her teacher presents an opportunity to make a difference, Cher takes everyone by surprise when she takes her teacher up on the offer. Tai changed her self-concept by conforming exactly to the way that Cher instructed. She even ends up losing touch with her true self. After the argument with Cher, she realizes that she changed for the worst and apologizes for it. By the end, she ends up reverting back to her true personality, but with some added confidence from the advice from Cher.

In eighteenth century which feminist in social status was not popular by that time, author can only through literature to express her thought and discontented about society. Jane Austen’s Emma advocates a concept about the equality of men and women. Also satirizes women would depend on marriage in exchange to make a living or money in that era. By the effect of society bourgeois, Emma has little self-arrogant. She is a middle class that everyone could admire, “Young, pretty, rich and clever”, she has whatever she needs. She disdains to have friends with lower levels. However, she is soon reach satisfaction with matchmaking for her friend. Story characterizes a distorted society images and the superiority of higher class status. It

Emma Woodhouse, who begins the novel "handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition" (Austen 1), suffers from a dangerous propensity to play matchmaker, diving into other’s lives, for what she believes is their own good. Despite this, she is a sympathetic character. Her matchmaking leads only to near-disasters and her expressions of remorse following these mistakes are sincere and resolute. Jane Austen's Emma concerns the social milieu of a sympathetic, but flawed young woman whose self-delusion regarding her flaws is gradually erased through a series of comic and ironic events.

Upon a comparative study of the texts Emma and Clueless, we can see that the quality of relationships in society bears strong similarities, despite their different contexts. Emma is set in 16th century England, where the rigid social structure dominated social interaction. This is contrasted to Clueless, which is set in 1990’s Beverly Hills where popularity was integral to determining a relationship. Being integral to modern society, relationships were used as medium to secure wealth and to find purpose in one’s life, in different contexts. Additionally, the restrictive nature of relationships has changed over the course of time despite still existing in a different sense. The strict class based society of the Regency Era limited relationships in Emma while social groups at school dictated the dynamics of relationships in Clueless. However, the popularity of marriages has decreased, with many teens opting to settle with dating before any further commitment. By discussing the different purposes and changes in relationships over the two texts we can develop clear ideas about the quality of relationships in society.

Author and journalist, Italo Calvino once stated that, “a classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say”, the perennial feature of a classic novel is able to provide a sense of relatability to the modern reader regardless of societal contexts. The significance of reinterpretation of classical texts lays in its disclosure of the modifications in society; the transformation of attitudes and values is juxtaposed in various milieus making it applicable to a vast audience. The novel "Emma" by Jane Austen scrutinizes the numerous complications of dating, ranging from social hierarchy, family and friendship to love and matrimony. The loosely based adaptation "Clueless" utilizes Jane Austen's ability to decipher human emotion and refashioning it to a much more appealing and marketable American High School setting.

Texts can be re-contextualised and manipulated in order to be relevant to a modern day society. However, the transformation is usually apparent and thus a link can be established between the original and the new. The transformation can give the audience a better understanding of societal values and attitudes present in the texts. Jane Austen's book Emma(1816), relevant to society in Regency England, is relived in a modern day context relevant to the 20th century American society in Amy Heckerling's “teen flick” Clueless(1995). Social status plays a crucial part in both texts.

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Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice tells the story of the agonizing romance between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. In eighteenth century class-conscious England, wealthy families married for money and a stable reputation. Many critics argue that people no longer marry for money but instead for love. However, sugar mommies, daddies, and babies are more prevalent in the twenty-first century than is publicly shown. Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl, originally chick literature turned major drama television series, portrays the romantic struggles of Manhattan’s East Side upper class. Despite being set in the twenty-first century, Gossip Girl is arguably a more dramatic, high-quality adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Though at first glance, Emma appears to be a generic romantic novel about virtue and ladyhood, Austen actually challenges what the meaning of “ladyhood” is to the reader. We view Emma’s follies, trials, and triumphs through the eyes of the omnipotent narrator who first describes Emma as a stereotypical, wealthy young lady who is “handsome, clever…with…a happy disposition” (1). Through the use of irony, Austen employs a series of situations in which Emma, a “lady” of high standing within her community, challenges conventional thinking of what it means to be a young woman in the early nineteenth century, particularly her ideas concerning marriage and

Marriage has no always been about the love and happiness two people bring eachother; instead it was concidered to be more of a business transaction. Emma by Jane Austen takes place during the early twentieth century, this time period was completly absorabed in social classes and had a much different view on marriage than today. Through the young, bold, wealthy, and beautiful character Emma Woodhouse, Jane Austen exposes the protocol of marriage as well as the effects marriage held based on social standing during the early twentieth centuery.