Emma, Clueless, and the Taking of Likeness

Emma, Clueless, and the Taking of Likeness Clueless, an adaptation of Jane Austen 's 1815 novel, Emma, is a 1995 American film by director, Amy Heckerling. The comedy serves as a 20th century update of the original text that shifts into creating a contemporary Emma, one for our own era. Though Clueless seems to set forth on building its reputation on a completely new, distinct ground, it is not an entirely different work of art. Considerable amounts of uniformities between the adaptation and Emma can be pinpointed throughout. As “Clueless is most faithful to Emma in its recreation of the plot involving Mr. Elton, Harriet Smith, and Emma” (Troost, Linda, and Greenfield 124), several parallels between the two distinctive texts, concerning this matter, can be recognized. One outstanding example is the correspondence and connection between the modern photography scene in Clueless and the sketching/painting of Harriet’s portrait in Emma. Hence, along with the novel’s highly persuasive guidance and the two’s so-called loose relation, various similarities as well as differences are inevitably present. Upon an analytical, close reading of the associated scenes, several shared story elements are brought into prospective. Both revolve around a beautiful, young lady who believes it is her duty to act as a matchmaker for her two companions. In both, the protagonist attempts to capture an image of her friend in hope that it would somehow reveal or prove the affection of the other. But aside from that, one will find that the two widely differ. Hence, to be able thoroughly analyze the two pieces of work upon this scene and to further point out its similarities as well as differences, the analytical structure will be narrowed down into six different aspects: characters, setting, narration, plot, style, and theme.
In both Clueless and Emma, the characterizations of the three main characters go together accordingly, exemplifying the resemblance between the parallels.

Bibliography: Austen, Jane. Emma. New York: Vintage Classics, 2007. 39-46. Clueless. Dir. Amy Heckerling. 1995.