A Comparison of Emma by Jane Austen and Movie Clueless

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.

From the very beginning of both movies, we can see the similarities

between the two main characters. Emma Woodhouse, the protagonist in

Emma, is part of the rich, upscale society of a large and populous

village called Highbury, in nineteenth century England; while Cher

Horowitz lives in rich, upscale Beverly Hills, U.S.A. In both Clueless

and Emma, both of the main characters, Cher and Emma, are spoiled,

high-class snobs who are looked upon with admiration and popularity by

all. Cher and Emma are among the cultural elite and because of their

wealth and class they are spoiled and tend to think too highly of

themselves.

Relationships are one of the key issues raised and explored in both

texts. One of the relationships explored is that between the daughter

and her father. Both Emma and Cher have a close yet out of the

ordinary relationship with their father, as each girl is the apple of

their fathers' eye and can do no wrong. And both Emma's and Cher's

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...tian they immediately

assume that they are in love. However, as they find themselves

becoming more attracted to Mr Knightly and Josh, Emma admits "that I

am not in love with Frank" and Cher discovers that Christian in gay.

In a sudden burst of inspiration, Cher and Emma both realise where

their hearts lie and finally get together with Josh and Mr Knightly.

With the exception of the exclusion of a few characters and minor

story lines, Clueless is a faithful adaptation and update of Jane

Austen's Emma and accurately illustrates all of the issues made by

Jane Austen. Most of the characters and plot parallel the original

story but the major similarity between the two are the issues raised,

which shows us again that although society has changed over the past

150 years, the main concept behind life will never change.