Jane Austen’s 19th century novel, Emma, and Amy Heckerling’s film appropriation, Clueless (1995), employ diverse contexts and mediums to display the ultimate similarity in contextually differing social values and the fundamental attitudes and beliefs that govern yet conform to society, through a comparison of Regency England and postmodern, commercialised America. The comparison enables the correlation and assimilation of the composers’ differing opinions in their respective texts, the juxtaposition of contrasting social standings and the illustration of relatively adverse actions of esteemed figures, to scrutinise social values. Emma and Clueless both explore prominent social values, such as relationships, social status and class responsibility, …show more content…
Emma’s and Mr Knightley’s engagement is Austen’s statement on social status as a crucial resolving factor of an appropriate prospective marriage, seen through Mrs Weston’s comments: “so proper, suitable, and unexceptionable” and “so peculiarly eligible, so singularly fortunate”. The accumulation, repetition of ‘so’ and connotations of the words, such as “proper”, “suitable” and “eligible”, imply that an ideal, befitting relationship is contingent on socio-economic compatibility and maintaining social harmony. This also infers the engagement’s undeniable rationality and enforces the notion of a quintessential relationship. The correlative significance of marriage in Highbury and Regency England signifies that the unobjectionable engagement is Austen’s authorial intrusion and her statement on marriage: spouses should have equivalent socio-economic competence. Similarly, in Clueless, Heckerling infuses the use of social status in match-making criteria through the scene of Cher attempting to find a decent partner for Mr Hall. Point of view shot and zooming is used in an uncut scene of female teachers to indicate exclusive involvement and emphasise on the minute details that contribute to the match-making criterion, which highlights the gravity of social status and compatibility. Swift panning to different teachers and Cher’s repulsed tone in her narration displays her dismissive attitude towards disreputable teachers through the rapid introductions of teachers. Elements of Heckerling’s match-making scene and Austen’s quintessential couple of Emma and Mr Knightley differ, such as Cher’s inclusion of details and profession in her dubious criterion, compared to overbearing importance of affluence in Austen’s blatantly compatible couple.
1. How do you think the new and old versions represent different aspects of their societies/times? What are the similarities and differences? For this assignment I reviewed the movies Emma and Clueless.
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is a Bildungsroman, a coming of age story that focuses on the psychological development of the protagonist, Catherine Morland. This essay will analyse the language and narrative techniques of the extract, and discuss how it suggests vicissitudes in Catherine’s personal perspectives and relationships. In addition, it will discuss the ‘domestic gothic’ and abuse ubiquitous in ordinary situations. Furthermore, it will argue how Austen’s rhetorical techniques work to encourage reader interest as well as exercising perception when distinguishing between appearance and reality. Finally, it will conclude by briefly discussing the significance of the extract within the novel’s wider themes.
How and why is a social group represented in a particular way? In his play The Importance of Being Earnest (1895, London St. James’ theater), Oscar Wilde portrays the attitudes and society of Victorian upper class through character interactions within the ‘Bunburyist’ adventures of Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing. The play’s comedic elements, in addition to the portrayal of power structures, are used as an effective medium to challenge the viewer to reflect upon Wilde’s criticism on institutions and values of the aristocracy. In conjunction to this, deeper analysis can be conducteds about marriage in Victorian aristocracy and their attitudes to members of other social groups.
In author Jane Austen 's 1813 romance novel Pride and Prejudice, social class stereotypes play a very key part when affecting the rolls of the Bennet sisters. Very clear distinctions between people who are grouped into classes are shown throughout the novel by characters of different classes stereotyping against others. This causes problems for many of the main characters who often fails to meet the social standards of others and stereotypes others themselves When it comes to social stereotypes Elizabeth Bennet, the second oldest Bennet sister, is no stranger. Throughout the novel her mother is often reminding her how to properly dress and correcting her on her manners.
Sentence Assessment Task Rhetorical Analysis: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Austen) Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) Austen’s famous statement on marriage and equality continues to resonate in modern society. In comparison to today, the Victorian era significantly suppressed women’s rights (Hughes). However, Austen juxtaposes that idea by stating that it is the man, no matter how wealthy, who ‘must be in want of a wife.’
One of the most famous lines in literature : “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”(Pride and Prejudice,1992,p.3) comes from Pride and Prejudice and perfectly illustrates the priorities in that era. The main goal was to unite families through marriage. It almost looked like the women were only attracted by status and wealth. In the introduction and Notes by Dr Ian Littlewood, University of Sussex, is being said that desire for a man in possession of a good fortune is the overriding concern of the female characters in this world, he finds that as in all Jane Austen’s novels ,the main business of Pride and Prejudice is the disposal of young women in marriage.
Love is a complicated affair, it involves the two lives of the couples and the lives of everyone around them. There are many factors that could break or make a relationship, for one to be successful they must be able to succeed in all of those factors. Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest delves into these factors regarding love and marriage. Wilde stresses the importance of social status and gender expectations as a key guideline for a successful marriage. For Wilde, social status is defined as birth, wealth, and power.
For me, every stylistic choice holds clear meaning—from the header photo (a woman, mid-reflection, facing the sea) to the color scheme (blues, greys, blacks, and whites that remind me of Anne and her various moods and phases of development throughout the narrative) to the simply beauty of the template itself. Ultimately, I think that the most unique—and rewarding—aspect of this project is the interaction across stories that arose as I explored my inciting question: what would Austen’s final heroine tell those who preceded her? Inevitably, this question led me to the issue of failed guidance. As Anne advises Emma and vice versa, one can’t help but wonder: where were the figures in their lives when they needed to hear these words?
The play An Ideal Husband was written by Oscar Wilde in 1895 in England’s Victorian era. This era was characterised by sexual anarchy amongst men and women where the stringent boundaries that delineated the roles of both men and women were continually being challenged by threatening figures such as the New Woman represented by Mrs Cheveley and dandies such as Lord Goring(Showalter, 3). An Ideal Husband ultimately affirms Lord Goring’s notions about the inequality of the sexes because of the evident limitations placed on the mutability of identity for female characters versus their male counterparts (Madden, 5). These limitations will be further elaborated upon in the context of the patriarchal aspects of Victorian society which contributed to the failed attempts of blackmail by Mrs Cheveley, the manner in which women are trapped by their past and their delineated role of an “angel of truth and goodness” (Powell, 89).
Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is a great example of her works that looks at the role of women in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Austen shows us the gender roles inflicted on women during this time period and how they are perceived. We see the strict gender roles that women were adhered to and the struggle for identity as a woman. Central to this novel is the vulnerability of women and the expectations surrounding gender influence everything and produce define results. Gender definitely determines and structures the world in which these characters live.
Oscar Wilde’s satirical play The Importance of Being Earnest, set in the late Victorian era, London, is a portrayal of British upper class society and its conventions surrounded by a strict code of conduct. In 1890’s class society, earnestness was desired; to follow the moral code and social obligations in order to keep up one’s appearance. Besides, there was a huge gender disparity between men and women. In the play, Wilde criticizes the social inequality and Victorian upper class standards. He characterizes Victorian personae making fun of their qualities; hypocrisy, arrogance and absurdism, ultimately the very vital state and lifeline of not being earnest at all in Victorian society.
Jane Austen (1775-1817) was one of the greatest English novelists in a century distinguished by great novelists. In six works characterized by keen perception, comic genius, and an unequalled prose style, Austen depicts both the nobility and the folly of human beings, especially as they fall in and out of love, in upper-class British society at the turn of the nineteenth century. Pride and Prejudice, first published in 1813, is Austen’s most popular work. A sparkling comedy of manners and morals, the novel describes the collision between two superbly crafted characters: the aristocratic, prideful, but honourable FitzwilliamDarcy, and the intelligent, witty, vital Elizabeth Bennet, whose initial prejudice against Darcy gives way to respect, love, and, as is typical of Austen’s novels, a happy marriage at the end. It is a remarkably happy novel that we continue to enjoy in part because Austen’s characters fulfill fairy-tale expectations; admirable, smart, and engaging characters are rewarded, and stupid, trite, and rude characters are ridiculed and banished.
Despite being inferior to Emma in social standing, thus not representing a real threat to her social standing, it not surprising Emma takes an immediate dislike towards her. Although described as possessing “very pleasing beauty” (161), it is not Jane’s attractiveness that threatens Emma’s position, but her preeminent talent and elegance which “received every advantage of discipline and culture” (158). For that reason, Emma has no trouble nurturing Harriet the “sweet, docile” (23), while feeling such disdain towards Jane, although their circumstances are very much alike. This observation is parallel to Riviere’s psychoanalytic outline of a successful, intelligent woman, seeking to integrate into a social network dominated by men, in regard to her relationship with other women “since she reached womanhood, her rivalry with women had been more acute in regard to intellectual
Jane Austen came up with many literary innovations which differed her from her predecessors. Barbara Hardy even calls her a possible creator of the modern novel. One of the differences between Jane Austen and her predecessor is the way how they wrote about the private world and the public world. The novelists before Austen had kept the balance between the two worlds but Jane Austen created a way, in which these two worlds can be lived together (Hardy 11-14). It is the social background that plays a significant role for Austen’s heroines as their mistakes are influenced by their social companions.
In Jane Austen’s novel, Sense and Sensibility she discusses feminism through the challenges women may face in marriage. Austen’s portrayal of her characters Elinor and Marianne demonstrate the struggles and pressures women face. These challenges can be seen through primogeniture, Elinor and Marianne’s approach to love and marriage, and a man’s ability to ruin or help women. The familial succession of assets typically went to the first-born son or the next male heir. In the case of John Dashwood, he inherited Norland estate after the death of his father leaving his half-sisters and stepmother “to quit the neighborhood Norland” and move to a small cottage in Devonshire.