Clueless and Emma essays

Clueless and Emma essays 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 later we can still recognize and identify with the exact same issues. This just proves that despite all the 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, relationships, upbringing, and love are raised in both texts. First of all, from the very beginning of both the novel and movie, 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. In both Emma and Clueless, both of the main characters, Emma and Cher, are spoiled, high-class snobs who are looked upon with admiration and popularity by all. Emma and Cher are among the cultural elite and because of their wealth and class they are spoiled and tend to think too highly of themselves. Secondly, 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 Emmas and Chers fathers are very generous with not only their love but also their money and constant compliments. But with these compliments and cash comes snobbery and I believe that it is the fathers that cause this in their daughters. It is here that the real problems of both Emmas and Chers situations come together. Both girls have ...