Emma And Clueless

"My character’s rules are all about things. She follows these rules - which are totally from some book, but which are absurd. But her rules are right out there, and in the end she says it’s O.K. to like boys and clothes and be who she is. I’ve been meaning to read Emma, like, forever" ("Austen Anew" 55). This quotation revealing Alicia Silverstone’s take on her role in the 1993 hit movie Clueless is both strikingly vacuous and surprisingly insightful.

While she may have never picked up Emma, Silverstone illustrates in this comment why she and so many others are drawn to the text today: both Emma and Cher, the protagonist of Clueless, subscribe to social "rules" while subverting the expectations of their world through the assertion of free will. This dynamic hinges on one condition: the characters’ choices must conveniently live up to society’s demands. Cher and Emma are allowed to be individuals because they are ideal characters. Silverstone makes clear that while a heroine is allowed to "be who she is," such freedom comes only to those who embody a prescribed paradigm and who will make decisions that perpetuate social stability. Austen’s work lends itself to a particular social environment searching for a balance between mutating social convictions. Therefore, the fact that recent popular culture is "having an unprecedented love affair with all things Austen" (Mitchell) demands investigation.

The 1993 hit film Clueless, written and directed by Amy Hecklering, exemplifies how popular culture re-appropriates Austen’s novels to serve updated agendas. As a novel of manners, Emma creates a space between competing ideological extremes of the late eighteenth century. During this period the traditional "aristocratic ideology,"1 based on a hierarchy of social birthright, began to clash with a "progressive ideology" emerging from burgeoning notions of individualism and capitalism. Emma exists as a text enmeshed in this debate and presents a tenuous equilibrium upholding social stability. Correspondingly, Clueless creates a guideline for proper sexual relations in a society both obsessed with sex and terrified by the ramifications of sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS.

As a character, Emma embodies her unsettled social environment. While she aggressively asserts her individuality and follows her free will, she is also the most eligible woman in Highbury. She may act like a product of "progressive ideology," but her social position embeds her in a "traditional ideology" that assumes marriage for social benefit. While Emma appears to reject the expectations inherent in this position, declaring never to marry and eventually marrying for love, it is both convenient and contrived that Kinghtley is not only her choice, but her social equal. The message is clear: follow your heart as long as it is appropriate.

Similarly, Cher’s actions belie her appearance. She embodies a sexual stereotype that a modern audience will immediately recognize. A blond teenager dressed consistently in short skirts, tight tops, and thigh-high stockings appears promiscuous, yet Cher forsakes expectations and remains a virgin until she finds an ideal match. Clueless flips the message espoused in Emma to one that states: follow your desires as long as it is appropriate. Cher’s virginity equates with Emma’s heart. Both characters manipulate the expectations of their audience and do not act in accordance with their specific social environment.

The plot of the film remains true to the novel, but the resemblance is deceptive. For while the stories correlate, we are different. And yet we, the audience viewing Clueless, relate to Emma as a thematic skeleton. The film’s popularity endows it with authority. If an audience responds to a particular text one can assume that that text hits a nerve in that society. The question then becomes, what aspect of the novel of manners are we attracted to, and what effect do new clothes, new houses, and a new era have on an old structure?

Clueless upholds the didactic impulse inlaid in Emma. Furthermore, as cultural contexts shift and additional impulses emerge, the original directives mutate. The sexual revolution of the 1960’s opened the doors on sexuality. What was once relegated to hushed whispers behind closed doors became open discussion in the hands of the media. Sex before marriage is assumed in most social circles and prevalent in current film. So, while finding personal satisfaction in marriage may have been unusual in the late eighteenth century, marrying to fulfill personal satisfaction is a unique concept today. Cher and Josh do not actually marry at the end of Clueless ("as if! I’m only sixteen you know"), yet Cher catches the bouquet at Ms. Guist’s wedding and brings the flowers to Josh. This scene completes the directive and aligns Cher to a marriage deemed unnecessary by current ideals.

Hecklering employs two techniques in the film that reveal an updated agenda. First, minute inconsistencies in the story line reflect how the twentieth century updates the eighteenth century for its own intent. The relationship between Frank Weston and Jane Churchill is absent in Clueless, and Harriet’s inability to find an attachment qualifies differently though Tai. These details help pinpoint where Austen’s perspective does not relate to a modern perspective and reveal why this perspective still continues to re-appropriate her form and structure.

Second, Hecklering taps stereotype and clichÐ"© to challenge the audience’s opinion. Although there have been numerous adaptations of Emma in film, Clueless is a striking model of refurbishment because it does not attempt to imitate the period or setting of the original text. It is impossible for us to approach an eighteenth-century text from the cultural environment in which it was written. Therefore, adaptations attempting to be true to an original novel end up disguising updated perspectives and agendas behind costumes or accents. Clueless does not face this dilemma. By setting Clueless in Beverly Hills of the 1990’s, Hecklering brings Emma to our environment and allows us to investigate the film without the same degree of second-guessing necessary for other adaptations.

Austen Goes Hollywood: Plot and Character Change Propelled by the Move

The major discrepancy between Emma and Clueless lies in how the outcome of each story is qualified. In Clueless Cher and Josh illustrate the ideal match reflected against other not-so-perfect attachments. Elton and Amber represent the shallowness of convenience, and Tai’s