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Narrative Analysis: Migration from Emma to Clueless

By Vicki Unsworth

Amy Heckerling created a modernized version of the Jane Austen classic Emma by changing the storyline to fit the culture of 1990's Beverly Hills. Grossberg defined discourse as "the way the story is told in a particular text" (Grossberg: 1998:163) and Heckerling's discourse in Clueless was a successful updated version of the classic eighteenth century novel. Clueless arrived in theatres in 1995 and was an instant box office hit. The success of the film was surprising for some critics who found the film to be a silly teenage comedy about a spoiled rich girl whose only hobbies include matchmaking and shopping.

The film tackled such issues as mass consumption, race, sexuality, culture and class - quite a leap from Jane Austen's original novel. The main character, Cher Horowitz, was the spoiled daughter of a wealthy Beverly Hills attorney who spent her free time shopping and organizing her massive, electronically organized closet. Clueless made fun of the superficiality of Beverly Hills through mass consumption and emphasizing the shallow need for material possession. Children were given expensive cars even before they earned a drivers license, credit cards were handed out as if it were candy. While everything appeared seemingly perfect on the outside - Heckerling emphasized the distortion of reality and that material possessions does not always make for happiness.

Clueless incorporated different races and ethnicities not found in the original Jane Austen novel. Beverly Hills High School had a vast array of students with different ethnic backgrounds - Cher's best friend Dionne and her boyfriend Murray were African American and Tai and Cher's housekeeper Lucy were Hispanic.

Sexuality was also found to be a common topic in the film, with Cher joking to her friends about saving herself for "Luke Perry". Tai hinted that she was sexually experienced when she first met Cher at school and she later mocked Cher for remaining a virgin for so long, Dionne and Murray eventually share their first sexual experience midway through the film.
Cher finally decided she was ready to have sex with Christian, only to find out that he was gay.

While Emma was written in the third person, the novel was told through a narrator as he or she observed and followed the main character. The reader felt as though he or she was a witness to the events of the story with a first hand experience of the emotions and experiences of Emma Woodhouse.
In contrast, Cher Horowitz was the main character and the narrator in the film Clueless - with the audience seeing and understanding the story as through the thoughts and actions of the main character.