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  • Essay / Elements of Austen's Emma in Amy Heckerling's Clueless

    Iconic '90s high school comedy, borrows features from Jane Austen's 19th-century classic Emma. Clueless's redescription of Emma is responsible for making it comedic, while adding an ironic intent, which establishes the two different targets the film is aimed at, both the sophisticated Jane Austen reader and the futile, superficial youth and linked to today's fashion. There are also similarities between the characters, due to the similarities between their time periods, including changing social landscapes. Clueless incorporates elements of Emma, ​​which emphasize the importance of combining traditional and modern trends which, in turn, allow the film, like the previous novel, to evaluate the upper class and emphasize that people must be aware of their position in society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The plot of Amy Heckerling's Clueless uses irony to frame Emma. The events of Clueless play out much like they did in Emma, ​​illustrating how societal conflicts have remained the same over time, only increasing in importance and impact on adolescents due to social boundaries being taken more seriously and shaping lives in more meaningful ways. For example, in the “Photograph Scene,” Emma’s readers can’t help but laugh at the dialogue between Elton and Cher: “Cher: You have his picture in your locker. Elton: I have the photo you took in my locker. Thus, the doubling of the painting for photography results in ironic effects, which contribute to the dramatic irony present both in the corresponding passage found in the novel and in the attempt to reproduce it in Clueless. In the context of the novel, the reader understands Mr. Elton's praise of Emma's painting, which possesses Emma's individuality and the efforts she has made. However, when Elton says that he kept the photo of Tai because it was taken by Cher, the viewer might suspect a parodic commentary on the misunderstandings in Austen's novel, as it is not convincing to either Cher nor for the spectator. This scene also exhibits the semantic characteristics of ironic speech, where Clueless both reproduces the ironies present in the novel and makes modifications to adapt them to our contemporary world, which allows Clueless to expand such ironic speech to encompass many new questions not present. in Austen's time. Therefore, Clueless creates irony by converging the modern and the traditional; by alluding to Emma, ​​and at the same time negating the allusion to focus on contemporary issues. Therefore, two ironic constructs can be derived from Clueless: viewers unfamiliar with Austen's text will still appreciate the ironies of Heckerling's film as social commentary; but the audience being able to identify Emma's traits in Clueless adds another level of irony to the film, where the scenes in Clueless that have a direct connection to Emma ultimately force the audience of both texts to re-scale the question of irony in terms of new highlights and performers. The informed reader is now aware and digs deeper into the points created in the film and its commentary on themes such as superficiality, materialism and the education system. Clueless perfectly translates Emma's world into 1990s America by imitating many attributes of Emma's characters. Clueless isn't a high school romance movie, it's a comedy that makes fun of them. Thus, by borrowing from the characters of Emma.