Emma/Clueless
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EMMA & CLUELESS
Both Emma in Jane Austens Emma and Cher in Amy Heckerlings Clueless portray symbolical manifestations and representational products of their social environment. Each of their social contexts are established by the composers distinctions and parallels of values, ethics, settings and mediums used.
In observing Jane Austens Emma and Amy Heckerlings Clueless one if forced to observe the paralleled values in both texts. These values assist in confirming the social, historical and cultural contexts within both texts.
A prominent binary in establishing disparate contexts within Emma and Clueless is that of propriety against equality and expression. Propriety is a principle issue within Jane Austens social context of Emma, the correctness and admiration towards wealth in 1816 is very much observed. This propriety is sustained by the somewhat hierarchal features that the town of Highbury possesses. “The Woodhouses held a high place” within the 19th century social context, superior to that of Ms. Bates, Harriet and Mrs Weston, all of whom possessed a lower fortune. Mr Knightleys perception of Mrs. Weston “She knows nothing herself, and looks upon Emma as knowing everything” testifies the inferiors admiration and regard towards the wealthy and fortunate.
Although the popular, respected character Cher enables the 1995 film to exhibit some aspects of social propriety there are scenes introduced by the composer to swiftly disregard this concept. In Emma the prospect of Harriet displaying disrespect
towards the protagonist would have contravened Austens social context, whereas Tais ability to verbalise irreverence towards Cher shows a change in social acceptability, thus social context. Heckerlings introduction of Cher being held at gunpoint, and robbed and Cher being hectored by her fathers employee brings Cher to a parity in her social context, more so
than Emma.
There is a close affiliation between Jane Austens concept of propriety and Amy Heckerlings inclusion of popularity, within Chers school environment. There are some effectively compositoned ( mis-en-scene)shots that communicate to the responders that Cher is respected and admired by her peers. For example, Cher is the vector of the shot when Dyonne, Cher and Tai walk through the school grounds. This makes Cher centred within an entire school shot making her visually the primary focus of the school, thus the most popular. Respect for Cher is also displayed following her debate on the comparison of refugees to her fathers party guests. The fact that her peers applaud and praise such a politically incorrect argument with such high regard emphasises her popularity, verging on propriety. Heckerling enables Tai to obtain popularity easily after her brush with death, this negates any chance of there being a connection between Jane Austens social context of propriety, and Amy Heckerlings of equality and freedom of expression.
Appearance in both Jane Austens Emma and Heckerlings Clueless has great stress placed on it. Although this value of appearance in both texts reveals a similarity between Austens social context and that of Heckerlings, at the same time, this value of appearance establishes voluminous distinctions also.
In Emma, the value of appearance is ascertained through manners, respect, propriety, gentility and elegance whereas in Clueless, appearance is measured by image, materialism, fashion, possessions and whatever.
This observation of appearance in Jane Austens social, historical and cultural context is demonstrated within Highburys social interactions. All characters within Emma wear social masks and act in accordance to class and rank. The characters outwardly display codes of etiquette, demeanour and conformity with a clear focus on discourse and manner. Emmas promiscuous flirting towards Mr. Churchill at Boxhill was viewed by those present (within the social context) as irrelevant and extraneous, as it contravened the 1816 view of appearance and gentility. Emma, who typifies her social character, regards the lesser Mr. Martin as “vulgar, gross and inattentive to appearances”. This example confirms Jane Austens value of appearance within Emma
Amy Heckerling places great importance on 1995s value towards appearance to establish her social context. Materialism, image and possessions and are all concerns within Clueless which testify its context. The opening sequence of laughing, flirting, stylish girls with the protagonist laden with shopping bags, an expensive car, bikinis, and a luxurious swimming pool visually establishes the social milieu, as well as the values of materialism, possessions and image within Clueless.
Chers computerised wardrobe selection also manages to comically establish the importance of fashion and image within this social milieu of appearance. The exaggerated costuming within Clueless and Chers love of her “satin red heels” confirms the importance of possession within the chosen film text. Chers whole existence is based on pretence, artifice and possessions, this can be testified in numerous ways. A person of Chers socio-economic status should be perfectly content with her possessions, however, when Cher fails to attain and possess a drivers licence she feels hopelessly depressed and underprivileged. This once again confirms the materialism, possessions and image within Amy Heckerlings satirical view of appearance within Clueless. Both Jane Austen in Emma and Amy Heckerling in Clueless sustain their social contexts, although almost 200 years apart, through their emphasis on appearance.
The value and importance of wealth plays an intrinsic role in establishing both Jane Austens and Amy Heckerlings context. An implicit scene transformation to prove this concept is that of the original “Mr Elton and Emma in carriage scene” to the appropriated Elton and Cher in car scene”. At the mention of Elton possibly being interested in Tai he quickly says “You know who my father is…Cher, you and me make sense”. This prejudiced comment is disregarding Tai as she is not of wealth, and verifying why Elton and Cher “make sense”, because they are both of wealth. Previously in the film, Heckerling creates Cher to recognise Elton as the “most popular guy in school”. This implies that popularity is achieved through wealth in Clueless.
Mr. Elton responds