Though written over two centuries apart, the protagonists in Jane Austen’s Emma and Amy Heckerling’s Clueless, are very much alike. They are strong female characters of a certain social standing, that are expected to abide by a particular set of rules and adhere to societal norms. Unlike most young women, Austen’s Emma and Heckerling’s Cher are able to disregard social expectations¬ — like Emma’s idea of marriage, and Cher’s idea of sex — simply because they are privileged and socially stable enough to do so. In this way, both young women simultaneously embrace and reject the principles of female social expectations of their specific time periods. Both Austen and Heckerling confront the belief systems of their readers and viewers through characters that do not act “appropriately” within their respective social environments. 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
Jane Austen's novel "Emma" published in 1815 and the film adaptation "Clueless" written and directed by Amy Heckerling in 1995 both share a similar interest in maintaining a high social status. Emma Woodhouse of the novel "Emma" and Cher Horowitz from the film "Clueless" are both spoiled young lady living in a high-class society. Emma Woodhouse is part of the rich, upscale society in a large and populous village in the nineteenth century England, while Cher Horowitz lives in a rich, upscale Beverly Hills, California USA. Both of the main characters, Emma and Cher shows arrogance and lack of acceptance to other social class due to their use of power and wealth, which they are unaware of it themselves. Emma and Cher's immaturity has resulted
Throughout history, notions of beauty have been integral to social life and culture, and are often reflected in period texts. An example of this is Jane Austen’s Regency era novel Emma (1815), and its 1995 film appropriation Clueless, written and directed by Amy Heckerling. These texts use the beauty ideals of their respective periods to showcase the negative effects of superficiality and the importance of ‘inner’ beauty. This becomes evident through exploration of the beauty ideals of both eras and how representations of these ideals have been appropriated from Emma to Clueless through characterisation.
In a world, where our teacher makes us write a comparative essay, one student will find a way to make this awesome. Despite the different time periods many movies are inspired by other directors in the development of other films. For example the movie Clueless is very similar to the movie Emma and have similar aspects to it. In which the overall plot for both movies were about a female protagonist who matchmaked people together.Love is a feeling that every human exepreriencnes and we get excited to see others in love. These two films were similar in the plot and characters but had differences in setting and time.
Austen’s views within Emma are a reflection of the prevailing views in the Regency Era, as the upper classes often abused their wealth and influence to ensure that their descendants would be wealthy like them. The rigidity associated with the class structure within the Regency era is initially reflected when Emma is characterised as, “handsome, clever and rich with a comfortable home and a happy disposition”. The fact the sentence specifically mentions her assets definitely emphasises how her inherited wealth is the major (if not only) factor accounting for her high status. This classist structure is later reflected with the gentry’s interactions of those below their social class. Emma’s arrogant tone when she teaches Harriet “the yeomanry are precisely the order of people with whom I can feel I can have nothing to do” is indicative of the inflexible nature of the class system during that era. It was acceptable to feel superior due to being of a higher class. Her view symbolises that of the upper classes’ patronising attitude to the lower classes, and thus emphasises the omnipresent nature of the class system within the United Kingdom. Hence, Austen’s heavy emphasis on the class system within Emma is a stark reminder of how our behaviours have not developed over the
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.
Fay Weldon’s ‘Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen’ (1984) through the form of an epistolic novel, serves to enrich a heightened understanding of the contemporary issues of Jane Austen’s cultural context. In doing so, the responder is inspired to adopt a more holistic appreciation of the roles of women inherent in Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (1813). Due to the examination of the shift of attitudes and values between the Regency era and the 1980s, the reader comes to better understanding of the conventions of marriage for a women and the role education had in increasing one’s marriage prospects. Weldon’s critical discussion of these issues transforms a modern responder’s understanding of the role of a woman during the 19th century.
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In a novel overflowing with misconstrued romance, “Emma” by Jane Austen succeeds in misleading the readers, as well as the actual characters on the matter of who is really in love with whom. Although it is teeming with romantic dialogue, the characters have a tendency to misunderstand confessions of love, as well as comments made in passing concerning the secret feelings of others. Through forms of narration and dialogue, Jane Austen forces the reader to interpret these subtexts and draw conclusions concerning the actual romantic intensions of her complex characters, while also deceiving readers on an adventure of romantic deception.
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
This image and atmosphere of mundane imperfection is a far cry from what Emma expects after reading the romantic novels she smuggled in at the convent. From those foppish texts she gathers the impression that ladies such as she should be “lolling on carriages” or “dreaming on sofas,” or perhaps embracing some dashing “young man in a short cloak” (Flaubert 32). Yet such is not the reality in which she lives.
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.
Writing in the Regency era of Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ (1792), who argued that women shouldn’t have to rely on marriage to attain financial independence, Austen reveals the benefits from marrying for love, rather than for economic reasons. By charactering Mrs Bennet as a woman obsessed with seeing her “daughters happily settled at Netherfield”, an outcome she hyperbolically insinuates would mean she would “have nothing to wish for”; Austen presents her views on marriage as hysterical and archaic. In contrast, she employs high modality diction to articulate Elizabeth’s rejection of Mr. Collins’ proposal, despite its financial advantages, on account of the absence of love for him: “I am perfectly serious in my refusal. You could not make me happy”, thus portraying her as a woman who stubbornly and affirmatively believes in marrying for love. Later, she uses contrasting, antithetical nomenclature by identifying herself as a “rational creature”, rather than an “elegant female”, thereby rejecting the passive, submissive attitude society expected of her, and instead, embracing Wollstonecraft’s advice to adopting a proactive attitude toward choosing a husband. Thus, Austen elicits a deeper understanding on the conservative and traditional role of women in marriage during her context to her readers.
In Emma Jane Austen exposes the limitations of the role of women in her society. Examine Austen’s presentation of what is called in the novel, women’s usual occupations of eye, and hand, and mind. Emma – Role of Woman In Emma Jane Austen exposes the limitations of the role of women in her society.
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
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.