The process of translating Emma into Clueless requires the 'new' author to extract the transcending values and morals imbedded in the original text, and reinstate them in a modern context in a way that appeals to a modern audience to capture the "zeitgeist" of the time. Clueless is a modern filmic replay of Austen's Emma built on the novel's narrative skeleton. Both are multilayered examinations of their societies and the individual's role in it. Their …showed first 75 words of 1397 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1397 total…issues in contemporary society which parallel those found in Emma. Together, they paint a wide-spanning portrait of Western civilisation, evidencing the superficiality of its professed 'progress'. The thematic Bildungsroman concern of an individual's growth to maturity forms the basis of each text. This tends towards the conclusion that there is a human constant, that despite how society changes, the human remains a product of the society, and never moves beyond what their experiences teach them.