Similarities Between Emma And Clueless

Jane Austen Goes to High School

A critic was once known for comparing Jane Austen’s novels to the book of burn from the movie Mean Girls. In Austen’s book of burn she shows no mercy as she weaves a tale in order to critique and mock the social view of her society. It is almost ironic that Jane Austen’s novels are being compared to a high school gossip book being that one of the best movie adaptations of her novel Emma is set in a modern day high school. This is perfect due to the fact that high school is not only a learning environment for the mind but also a part of people’s lives where they develop important social skills. By setting up Jane Austen’s novel Emma in a modern day high school, the movie adaptation Clueless shows an accurate

portrayal of Emma’s transformation through gossip, perceptions and social judgments as told in the novel. (Thesis-needs to be revised)
The beginning description of Emma Woodhouse’s personality is an interesting one. Jane Austen begins to describe Emma as being a person who has it all: “handsome, clever, rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition”(55), then a couple paragraphs down contradicts this description of Emma by stating “The real evils, indeed, of Emma’s situation were the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself”(55). This first description of Emma seems to be how society views her, as this ideal model of a Jane Austen character without flaws but by immediately displaying Emma’s flaws afterward, Austen seems to be trying to make sure that the readers know that this is not the case. In a society like Austen’s image is everything and a lot of people are challenged to be perfect. It is basic human nature to be flawed and as a result everyone may not be who he or she seem. Emma herself is not trying to create this image herself; it is actually society who does which goes to show how perceptive a society can be.
Another reason that Jane Austen portrays Emma this way in the beginning of the novel is to let the readers early on that this is going to be a story where Emma is going to have to learn to become self-aware of her surrounds and this novel is her journey to realize that.

The movie Clueless does a really good job of portraying this beginning description of Emma through the character Cher. Cher is almost a complete clone of Emma through the guise of a popular high school girl. They are both descripted as beautiful, wealthy and highly influential within each of their social circle sharing their precise skill of manipulation. They also share their lack of self-awareness also known as their weakness. A perfect example of this portrayal of Cher and Emma’s personality is when Cher says “Okay, you’re probably going ‘Is this a Noxema commercial or what?’ But seriously, I actually have like a way normal life for a teenage girl.” This statement through the airheaded voice of Cher further enforces her flawed personality trait of lacked self-awareness similar to how Austen describes Emma. It is her exact skill of manipulation and lack of self-awareness that gets Emma into trouble through her participation in the gossip of her society. Before discussing how Emma’s character flaws get her into trouble, through her participation in the gossip of her society, gossip itself must be defined as well as it’s function within

society.
In the dictionary gossip is defined as “casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true.” Basically gossip is when information about another person is told to others and believed as truth without any evidence or proof.

Gossip is usually believed whether or not it is true and can be spread like a virus. What makes gossip so untrustworthy is that even if the word initially starts as truth as it travels through many mouths that it almost always becomes misconstrued. The best way to describe how gossip is spread is the phone call game. In most elementary school young students are taught the phone call game in order to learn to be careful with their words. How the phone call works is that groups of student form a line and the first person whispers into the ear of the person next to them a statement such as ‘The ice cream man is coming to school after lunch time’. The person next then will continue to repeat this statement to the person next to them and so on and so forth until the statement is repeated to the last person. The last person will then reveal that the statement is ‘for homework we eat ice-cream.” The last statement does not match the first. Why? Because with each person the information is constantly changing making word of mouth not very reliable. The exact same thing happens with gossip. As a result false information can be spread and can create problems. A person might ask if

gossip is so unreliable why do people gossip at all?
In a society, gossip is a form of language and how people find things out about each other. In a high school this is something that even more prevalent because student are curious and the ability to fit in is an apparently a huge concern. High school student try to use this gossip communication in order to pass social judgment on a person in order to deem whether or not they possess the social stamp of approval. Since it designed as a hierarchy these people are usually on the top of the food chain. They usually decide on who is the most reliable spreader of gossip through who is the most known and liked. This however is not really always a good indicator since many high school students are immature and unaware of their surroundings much like Emma, who in her own little society is the top of the social food chain. This is when she says something she is perceived as right.
Due to the lack of a mother figure and the pedestal society has put Emma on, she as a result is a spoiled youth with too much social sway and believes that many need to