The process of transformations teaches the responder to appreciate both texts, in this case, “Emma” and “Clueless”, better. Discuss with close reference to both texts.
Through viewing and responding to director Amy Heckerling’s film “Clueless”, a transformation of the classic Jane Austen novel “Emma”, responders better appreciate these texts as they come to understand the ways in which the values present in “Emma” resonate in “Clueless”. Values such as social hierarchy, class mobility, self-development and the importance of marriage as well as patriarchal societies are explored in both texts. Through examining the similarities and differences that exist within each of these values between the two texts, responders are taught to appreciate “Clueless” as a transformed text, and thus appreciate “Emma” better.
In both “Emma” and “Clueless”, social hierarchy is determined by one’s family, wealth and the property one owns. In “Emma”, Emma is described to be “handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home...” It is due to her father’s wealth and the property he owns that the Woodhouses were “first in consequence there [Highbury].” This emphasis on social hierarchy is mirrored in the opening scene of Heckerling’s “Clueless” in which a pastiche of images of Cher going to parties, shopping and lazing by the pool establishes her place in upper class society. Similarly to Emma, Cher’s misperception of the world, specifically a teenage girl’s world, is conveyed through the use of colloquial language and allusion to pop-culture in the line, “Ok so you’re probably going, so it this like a Noxema commercial or what? But seriously, I actually have a way normal life for a teenage girl.”
Additionally, the texts “Emma” and “Clueless” also explore the value of class mobility through Harriet and Tai respectively. Emma vows to “introduce her [Harriet] into good society.” She endeavours to rid Harriet Smith of the company of people of an inferior class, specifically Mr Martin and to ‘makeover’ her manners so that Harriet is able to move up in terms of her rank in society. In “Clueless”, Heckerling uses the cliques that exist in high school society to explore the class mobility that is evident in “Emma”. Through Cher’s makeover of Tai, as depicted through costumes and Cher’s attempts to match-make Tai with Elton and not Travis, we see Tai move up in social rank. As a result, responders’ gain a better appreciation of the values of class mobility and social hierarchy in “Emma” through the transformation of “Clueless”.
Both Emma and Cher develop over the course of their respective texts, particularly in regard to the way in which they learn to associate with the lower class. As can be seen on the Box Hill Trip when Emma uses insulting diction towards Miss Bates; “Ah! Ma’am, but there may be a difficulty. Pardon me – but you will be limited as to a number – only three at once”; Emma does not always act with due decorum towards those of lower class. However, as the novel progresses, we see Emma improve in this regard, partly due to Mr Knightley’s influence over her and how he expresses that he found the way in which she insulted Miss Bates to be “badly done indeed!” The use of the truncated sentence here emphasises Mr Knightley’s point and as a result of this incident, we see that Emma’s “disposition to think a little too well of herself” lessens by the end of the novel. The ability to associate with those of lower social rank is echoed in “Clueless” when by the end of the film; we see Travis and Cher get along quite well when Cher is acting as captain for the ‘Pismo Beach Disaster Relief’. Through the recontextualised “Clueless”, responders are able to better appreciate the value of self-development in “Emma”.
Whilst both “Emma” and “Clueless” end with a wedding(s); there is a focus on not only marriage but more so the importance of finding a suitable partner and how this helps to establish one’s position in society. This value is able to resonate between the texts as a result of the recontextualised setting of “Clueless” in that we see that Cher’s disapproving feelings towards certain cliques of high school boys, dictates that like Emma, Cher believes that the main factor that expresses a man’s suitability for a woman is his social rank. “The ‘loadies’ generally hang on the grassy knoll over there. Sometimes they come to class and say bonehead things, and we all laugh, of course. But no respectable girl actually dates them.” However, in “Emma”, factors other than social rank are of equal importance in terms of finding a suitable partner. The text emphasises that a marriage should only take place if something will be gained from the union, such as wealth and status. In this way, both texts depict patriarchal societies in which males are relied on as being the sole providers and women as the nurturers. Love in Austen’s society was not of primary importance and was a mere bonus in a marriage. As is clear at the end of both the novel and the film, the marriage of Mr Knightley and Emma and Miss Geist and Mr Hall in “Emma” and “Clueless” respectively conveys the “perfect happiness of the union” that a suitable partnership brings.
In conclusion, the values of social hierarchy, class mobility, self-development and marriage as well as patriarchal societies are explored in Austen’s “Emma” and Heckerling’s “Clueless”. Through examining the similarities and differences that are present in regard to the values that resonate in each of these texts, responders are taught to appreciate both texts better. It is because of this transformation process that readers are able to appreciate “Clueless” more because of their understanding of “Emma” and similarly, “Emma” more due to their understanding of “Clueless”.