Jane Austen discussion

I know that the film Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd, is based off of Emma, but I'd like to know how people see the different scenes relate to the events in the book, etc.

There are a few scenes that parallel the book, for instance when Tai (Harriet) tells Cher (emma) that she is interested in Josh (Mr. knightley)

Also, at the dance when Tai has no one to dance with Josh dances with her, just as Mr. Knightley dances with Harriet.

There's also the fixing up the teachers and doesn't Cher try to make over Tai and turn her into a cool kid?

Yes that is how they compare there is Emma and Cher playing match maker they both come from families that are well off. They are kind and compassionate girls that have good hearts and good intentions that want to be helpful but their good intentions go arye. And the happy ending of Tai and Harriet choosing ,on their own, who to go with and Emma and Cher realizing love has been before them the whole time.

The constrast is in the difference in values of the age they live in. The culture and customs of the different societies. But the basic concepts are the same.

Both are about smug, privileged girls who are not mean-spirited but simply heedless; both learn a lot about taking their “superiority” for granted and try to become better people. Both discover that they are in love with an older male whom they have known for a long time. Both travel an arc from self-absorption to a greater recognition of the world around them.

In my last post I misspelled awry. It is awry not ayre I don't know what I was thinking. It must have been my allergies doing the spelling.

I don't know if I would call them "smug" so much as "heedless" yes and "clueless" like the movie title. I think that they truly believed that they were helping.

Gretchen,

I haven't seen "Clueless" but I feel that Emma was smug.

I just looked up the definition of the word on my smart phone dictionary and the definition describes Emma herself to a T. It's as if the person who wrote the definition was well-acquainted with Emma herself.

I looked up the word smug in different dictionaries. I still don't see her as smug.