Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,
as a coming-of-age story, echoes some themes and ideas from Northanger Abbey
and 18th and 19th century values and behavior. Both
stories feature a high degree of self-awareness, and both mock the attitudes of
certain adults. For example, Austen mocks the shallow and vain outlook of
people like Mrs. Allen and Thorpe, while the film mocks the overly-critical and
unsympathetic attitudes of people like Ed Rooney. While the teenage characters
may not find themselves in the same situation as Catherine, they are pressured
by similar forces. Both find themselves pushed by parents, authority figures,
and society to aspire to some social expectation; for Catherine, this expectation
is the 18th to 19th century feminine ideal, for Bueller
and his friends, this expectation is the late 20th century ideal of
the obedient and academically successful teen. These pressures lead Catherine
to become someone she might not have been and is not suited to be, and lead the
cast of the film to rebel. In both stories, the teenage characters are naïve
and have a limited understanding of the world, and by the end of their stories
they have reached a higher level of maturity.
No comments:
Post a Comment