Emma Woodhouse and Clueless Cher by Jane Austin
Jane Austin's "Emma Woodhouse" and "Clueless" Cher, both portray the same six qualities as main characters of their respective works. These qualities are best seen as they interact with the characters around them.
The first portrayal is self-control. This is portrayed in "Clueless" when Cher finally realizes Josh is the one for her and not the other guys she has gone out with (Clueless). In "Emma," Emma feels going after Frank will complete her and she ends up being successful (Emma).
The second quality that both girls possess is their opinions. In "Clueless," Cher's opinion is based on finding a man for Ty who is her best friend (Clueless). Emma's opinion is based on bringing Miss Taylor and Mr. Weston together (Emma). Emma's opinion is the reason for them joining. Characters around them bring out all the character opinions.
The third quality that can be very common in many movies with young girls is important and it is the relationship with their fathers. Cher has a good relationship with her father; she lives in a motherless household so she has to care for her father twice as much. She makes sure he keeps his cholesterol down and eats right (Clueless). Emma also lives in a motherless household and shows a close relationship by discussing her personal problems with "Papa." (Emma)
The next quality is Cher and Emma's focus on other people. Cher is concerned with Ms. Geist and Mr. Hall's relationship; she gets them together and they get married (Clueless). She also helps with the Pismo beach disaster victims by volunteering and donating a few of her things (Clueless). Emma is concerned with Harriet Smith's
relationships (Emma). Being a very good friend she wants to find the perfect match for Harriet (Emma).
The fifth of six qualities discussed in these movies is selfishness. Cher shows her selfishness when Travis accidentally spills beer on her shoes and she flips out and yells at him calling him all kind of rotten names (Clueless). Emma shows her selfishness by getting Harriet to turn down Mr. Martin so thing wouldn't be ruined for Mr. Elton (Emma).
The final quality is the need for self-fulfillment. Cher feels all of the mean and nasty things she has done in her meaningless lie can be changed if she helps other so she tries to help the victims of the Pismo beach disaster (Clueless).
The film Clueless praises the white rich feminine voice. The film begins with high school students from Beverly Hills shopping, partying, and spending money as the kids in America. This economic capital is unrealistically flaunted as the normal life of a teenage girl. Cher’s father, as a lawyer, earns $500 per hour. His occupation allows Cher to have a jeep, designer clothes. Her economic status puts her at the top of the academic social hierarchy. Her persuasiveness and popularit...
Emma and Cher both abuse the power of wealth and become spoiled, socially dominating, and overly confident with themselves. However, they both feel very comfortable in this lifestyle because of their possessions and social status. Jane Austen secures Emma in the very first paragraph of her novel. She states, "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to vex her" (Austen 1). Cher has everything a teenager could possibly want: her own jeep, an endless wardrobe, and amounts of money that seems to be collected from a money tree outside the backdoor.
Cultural differences include when Cher mentions coke with her lunch and Tai thought she meant the drug coke, also known as cocaine, instead of the beverage coke. Because Cher comes from an upper middle class background, her upbringing, culture and language are different. Tai, on the other hand, comes from a middle class background and coke, short for cocaine, is a common street word. Therefore, the different backgrounds and upbringings cause word confusion between the girls. There is social class difference among the group members present in the film. In the beginning of the film, Tai shows interest in Travis, a skateboarder, but Cher directs Tai’s interest toward the rich, popular boy in school, Elton. Cher is trying to mold Tai into someone who she thinks is acceptable and she believes that her end-results are too good for a mere skateboarder. Cher looks down on the other group because of their lack of money and their different interests. Social class is determined by “educational attainment, income level and occupation status” (Peterson, 2010). Out of these three major components of social class, income level plays a major role in the high school social hierarchy. Elton is supposedly a better match for Tai just because his family is
to discover how she has lost the ability to feel, ands the unraveling of her own mystery
It genuinely loves its characters and insists that the audience do as well. Cher’s big emotional arc comes to a head with the crescendo of a Celine Dion song and well-timed Rodeo Drive fountain splash: “I was just totally clueless.” This would read as camp if the film weren’t so emotionally invested in its characters. It simultaneously acknowledges the ridiculously low stakes while sympathizing and acknowledging that to Cher and her peers, everything ¬– escaping the house party, the failed driving test, the unrequited high-school love, the emotional trigger of a Coolio song, all of it –¬ ¬feels incredibly high stakes. This is what makes Clueless stand out in the long tradition of teen films. We acknowledge that the problems of these characters are silly, but we understand they are problems to them nonetheless. After Cher realizes that she’s the one who needs to change, that she is the one who is clueless, she embarks on the task of saving Pismo Beach by excitedly donating her skis and uneaten caviar. It would feel completely ridiculous if she didn’t approach it with the same gusto that had for Tai’s new workout routine. Within the Clueless universe, this feels like a genuine moment of self-awareness and
Desperate for acceptance and a loving husband, Muriel Heslop (Toni Collette) armed with $12,000 stolen from her lifeless family embarks on a life-altering journey. Together, with her new-found friend, Rhonda Epinstalk (Rachel Griffiths) Muriel endures the ups and downs of being the opposite of a feminine, popular woman.
While Emma is not thinking straight, Jacob is able to keep is head throughout the story. He learns what it means t think logically, and it helps him throughout his
Emma's personality is largely shaped by the nature of her upbringing. Emma had no motherly figure guiding her as she grew up, due to the fact that her mother passed away at a young age, and her governess, Miss Taylor, became her best friend instead of an authority over her. At the start of the novel Miss Taylor gets married to Mr. Weston, leaving Emma with her despondent and hypochondriac father, Mr. Woodhouse. Although Mr. Woodhouse often confines Emma to the house because of his paranoia of her being harmed, he gives her little guidance. Emma becomes accustomed to being the "princess" of her house, and she applies this role to all of her social interactions, as she develops the ability to manipulate people and control them to advance her own goals. Emma views herself with the highest regard, and feels competition and annoyance with those who threaten her position. Emma has much resentment toward Mrs. Elton, as Mrs. Elton becomes a parody for Emma's mistakes and interactions. Mrs. Elton's attachment to Jane Fairfax is much like Emma's attachment to Harriet Smith; both Mrs. Elton and Emma attach themselves to young women and try to raise their...
Another form of Emma’s neglect is one of manipulation, mostly through her control over Harriet Smith. Emma is “willful, manipulative, an arranger or rather a misarranger of other people’s lives. Much of the time she fails to see things clearly and truly, and her self-knowledge is uncertain” (Goodheart)25. “One significant effect of harping on Emma's snobbery is to set in relief her romantic notions of Harriet's origin and destiny” (Brooke)26. Although to Harriet, Emma’s “help” to her is one that will reveal optimistic results and a proper husband, Harriet is incapable to taking up for herself against Emma, but if “[s]he would form her opinions...
...ejudice and realizes her faults she develops towards Darcy and is then prepared for a more fulfilling happy marriage.
Even though both of these movies have the same type of plot, scenes, and age groups, there is plenty of contrast between their self -identity. The first of which I would like to discuss, is the type of self being portrayed by both main characters.
Emma Woodhouse tries to use her influence to manipulate everyone around to her likings, and she only accepts the advice of mentors who agree with her. Emma knows that she is clever, and, having grown up as the smartest person among in Hartfield, she is continually being praised for her wit. As Mr. Knightley told Mrs. Weston, “Considering how very handsome she is, appears to be little occupied with it; her vanity lies another way” (33). She believes herself to be in the right without considering any other possibilities, or she rationalizes those possibilities away. More often than not, she is wrong.
I loved all of her little quirks and weird habits. Like how she used to always tell people if they smelt good after she hugged them, or how she would joke about her life ending if she couldn’t find something, or how when she was nervous or shy she would pull her sleeves down so they went over the tips of her fingers. I loved them all. But one day in maybe March, or April, in ninety degree weather, she came to school in an oversized sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers; she couldn’t have covered more of her skin if she tried. Emma had big dark rings under her eyes, she didn’t make eye contact with anyone when she walked in and went straight to her locker. Something had changed. Something had hurt her, badly. She went from the always cheery easily excitable big eyed weirdo she was, to this tired strung out almost scared girl. I remember walking up to her and making eye contact, she looked ready to burst into tears. I asked if everything was okay and she replied as honest as I have ever seen her with a simple “No,” and walked away, hugging her books to her
Author Jane Austen had porttryal of arrogance that existed in upper class society. She uses Emma as a representative of the faults and lack of values of her society. Just as Emma contains these many faults, the upper class society as a whole also contains these many faults. Additionally, in Emma, Austen depicts the distorted views of gentility. Austen depicts her own message of true gentility by creating characters of differing class ranks. Bradbury relates that the characters that are socially high seem to be morally inferior and those of lower rank are "elevated" by their actions (Austen 81). Austen's development of characters, especially Emma, is very effective in relaying her message about the snobbery and lack of gentility that existed in upper class society.
Emma Woodhouse: Emma is the main character of the novel. She is a beautiful, smart, and wealthy 21-year-old woman. Because of her admired qualities, Emma is a little conceited. She is the daughter of Henry Woodhouse. Since her mother has died, Emma has taken the role of taking care of her father, who is old and often sick. Because she feels she is obligated to stay by his side, Emma decides not to marry. Emma believes that she is a good matchmaker, and tries to put together several couples throughout the novel. Emma believes that social classes are very important and refuses to see anyone cross over to marry someone lesser than themselves In chapter 8-page 52, Emma is talking about Harriet’s situation with the farmer with Mr. Knightley. She says, “Mr. Martin is a very respectable young man, but I cannot admit him to be Harriet’s equal. As the novel progresses, Emma becomes more mature, and realizes how silly she had been in the past. In the end, she finally stops matchmaking others and marries Mr. Knightley, who was perfect for her all along.