FREE EMMA + CLUELESS ESSAY

[georgiia]

“The Study of transformation explores the tension between continuity and change.” Explore how this statement is true.

Amy Heckerling’s late 20th century film Clueless as a transformation of Jane Austen’s canonical novel Emma explores the tension between continuity and change sought through the disparity between their respective contexts. Emma, written in the early 1800s, reflects the various ideological and philosophical milieus of the Regency period. Heckling has reshaped and moulded the values and societal mores apparent in Austen’s Emma, in attempt to compose a teen flick which may better resonate with the contemporary paradigm of 1990s Beverly Hills. Whilst Clueless is set within a world driven by consumerism, materialism, popularity and image, implicit parallels to Austen’s patriarchal society driven by strict propriety, high status of marriage and rigid social structure based on property are clear. The reshaping of values such as social status expresses the predominant belief that a text is a product of its age. The change in context allows the audience to comprehend and partake in the experience of a bildungsroman text. The juxtaposition of the two texts allows the audience to identify the tension between continuity and change through the use of the female protagonist who portrays the flaws of human nature.

Jane Austen’s novel begins with, “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich.” This highlights the attributes that were most desired at the time of 19th century Highbury, England. However, Jane Austen’s context had a class hierarchy with males that had inherited wealth at the top. This patriarchal society represented in Emma portrays the importance of marriage for women as it was their only means of financial security as well as the advancement of their position in society. ‘Emma’ had none of the “Usual inducements of women to marry,” because she had inherited wealth. Austen presents us to this world sympathetically as she uses an omniscient narrator that looks at everything from Emma’s perspective which is quite similar to Clueless as Heckerling’s voice-overs are created by Cher, which gives us an insight into her meddlesome ways. Emma still understood the importance of marriage for lower class women because she takes a girl of lower class under her wing, Harriet Smith, and tries to raise her status in society and find her a wealthy and sociable husband. However, Mr Knightley educates Emma in regard to the relationship between class and marriage and cautions Emma of the consequences of her meddling as he believes that Emma will, “Puff [Harriet] up of such ideas of her own beauty...nobody within her reach will be good enough for her.” Austen uses Mr Knightley as a good judge of character so that he can criticize Emma’s flawed judgement and society in general. 

Heckerling’s film, Clueless, consistently uses Emma to specify and satirise aspects of 20th century America throughout the film. The tension between continuity and change has been created as the values of society have changed whereas the human condition of continuity such as Cher and Emma’s poor judgement still remains the same. Attitudes towards marriage, class and gender roles have significantly changed since the publication of the Austen’s novel as Clueless portrays contemporary society as being unrestricted; unlike the patriarchal world of Jane Austen. The narrative of Clueless is to find equal matching partners but not for the sole objective of marriage. Modern families are no longer permanent as they were in 1880s England which is reminded to the audience through constant references of divorce such as, “You divorce wives not children.” The constant repetition of divorce offers a social comment to society about how marriage has become a part of the American, “Throw away,” society.

To reveal society’s attitude towards marriage, Austen employs characterisation. Miss Bates is a middle class spinster who has not been able to secure a marriage partner which is not the ideal situation for a middle aged woman to be in. She is pitied because, “She has sunk from the comforts she was born to,” and her income levels are decreasing which increases her reliance on the generosity of family and friends. Her dialogue indicates a lack of uncertainty and excessive deference as she has long idiosyncratic speeches and always wants to be liked. Emma’s is more articulate as she has a higher position within society, as does, Cher’s dialogue which represents her superficiality but shows that she has the potential to be better. Therefore, dialogue portrays the character’s class and nature.

Emma believes that Harriet is a good match for Mr Elton as he is sociable, has a good status and seems to need a wife. Therefore, when Mr Elton rejects the idea of him marrying Harriet Smith, Emma is shocked at how snobbish Mr Elton can be. Ironically though, Emma is shocked that Mr Elton, a man of lower class to her proposes to her. The use of irony shows us the attitudes towards social class levels and gives us an insight into Emma’s flawed judgement.

Clueless shows that attitudes towards class are still existent but are shown in a different way as Cher points out to Tai, whom she has taken under her wing as a,” Project,” that, “No respectable girl would date them,” the, “Loadies.” Respectable girls, according to Cher, only date, “Baldwins,” which is the colloquial term for wealthy, popular males. Heckerling uses colloquial language such as, “Monet’s,” and, “Betty,” to contextualise and appeal to her target audience which were teenagers. Cher and her best friend Dionne are part of the popular group as popularity and wealth seem to be at the top of the hierarchy in contemporary culture as well. Cher is a product of her contemporary culture as she lives in, “ The consumers spiritual sanctuary,” where the shopping mall is her sanctuary which is part of her, “Way normal life,” and she thinks that makeovers and sexually suggestive clothing are the most important things in life. Cher is also oblivious to the outside world as she watches a news report about a war in Bosnia and exclaims to Josh, “I thought they declared peace in the Middle East.” Heckerling is offering a social criticism for society’s belief that physical appearance is really important in a consumer driven world and that society is totally clueless of what’s going on in the world as they are too selfish to leave their self-centred world.

Ironically, like Emma, her world is rather small. She is confined to her small world of Beverly Hills where she lives an adolescent’s dream of excess and luxury and goes to parties to maintain her social status and match make. When Elton like Mr Elton, refuses to date Tai because she is of lower class, Cher is disgusted at his snobbishness akin to Emma’s reaction in Austen’s novel. Ironically, however, she is portrayed as the snob when she rejects Elton because she believes that he is of lower class than her. This shows us that the social hierarchy system of wealth and popularity still has not changed as it is a part of the human condition.

Jane Austen’s social criticisms of the social class systems shows us that Emma now understands that marriage and class are inextricably linked with the help of her ideal male figure, Mr Knightley. Mr Knightley has a paternalistic attitude towards Emma and his position as a leader in society as does Josh who is seen in the film wearing various awareness raising t-shirts such as Amnesty International and Breast Cancer to show his caring nature towards issues that affect the whole world. Ironically, however, Josh is boasting about how their Amnesty Campaign is getting a celebrity endorsement from, “Marky Mark,” which points to how contemporary society will only think an issue is important when a celebrity endorses it. This highlights the shallowness of modern day society.

Power and position are inextricably linked with wealth and popularity in Emma. When Emma goes out for a picnic at Box Hill with the other families she unknowingly warns the talkative Miss Bates not to talk too much. Emma does not realise her mistake but Mr Knightley tells Emma about how influential her power and status in society is and how Emma has misused it and hurt Miss Bates. Emma feels hurt by this comment and portrays the feelings equivalent to Cher when she fails her driving test and asks, “What’s wrong with me?” Emma’s realisation, “It darted through her, with the speed of an arrow, that Mr Knightley must marry no one but herself,” and Mr Knightley’s dialogue becoming particularly articulate, “I cannot make speeches, Emma,” shows that use of imagery and dialogue were subtle techniques that Austen could employ to portray Emma and Mr Knightley’s feelings for each other. When Cher has her sudden realisation of her, “Majorly, totally but crazily in love with Josh,” the fountain and the music swells behind her. The use of this cinematic technique suggests that us as society are no longer noticing the subtle ways of finding true meanings and require rather large clichés to notice them. 

It is now obvious that Amy Heckerling’s film, Clueless, has transformed Jane Austen’s novel, Emma, by undergoing the tensions of continuity and change. Heckerling’s text represents the changes in the superficial aspects of society which reveals a lot about the changing nature of society but still maintains the essential themes and character developments in Emma. Heckerling also suggests that even though there are many changes in the superficial aspects of society the continuity of poor judgement and the human condition still remains constant even though these texts are nearly a century apart.