Bridget Jones’s Diary as adaptation

similarities to Pride and Prejudice

• largely similarities of plot
• mother who actively seeks to marry daughter to man of position
• father who mocks mother
• (Mark) Darcy as cold, socially inept, arrogant
• tension between Darcy and Bridget
• tension between urban and country environment remains
• obsession with marriage remains

differences

• narrator is replace by diary and voice-over
• use of media: music and billboards function as an additional characters that provide commentary on action
• only one daughter
• “urban family” of friends stands in for nuclear family of P&P
• Country dance is shifted to New Year’s Day buffet in country; here, narrator sides with city folk and mocks country as quaint
• email instead of letters
• mother has some agency; leaves father rather than submit to endless criticism
• Bridget is witty, but articulate only in voice over; Elizabeth is witty and articulate
• irony is more broad; tends to be self-deprecating
• Instead of Elizabeth’s self-confidence, have Bridget’s low self-esteem and addictive behaviours
• tension between Darcy and Wickham now over wife rather than sister
• Darcy’s co-worker, Natasha, replaces Miss Bingley
• proposal scene is spread over several encounters
• Elizabeth is a bit of a non-conformist: too active, too thoughtful and rejects attempts to arrange her marriage; Bridget can’t cook, lacks social decorum, and rejects mother’s attempt to marry her
• Elizabeth is supportive of family, even to denying her own needs; Bridget rather indifferent to family’s needs
• P&P focuses on money, Bridget Jones’s Diary focuses on attaining physical “perfection” and material acquisition
• Elizabeth is unaware of Wickham’s character; Bridget knows that Cleaver is a weasel, yet still desires his approbation
• culture of dissolute and cynical Yuppies
• characters, including the mother are openly sexual without experiencing public censure
• Bridget has financial independence, job and her own apartment

As critique of contemporary culture

• social criticism reserved for appearances: weight, lack of confidence, fashion-consciousness, size of breast, shape of nose, etc. – adherence to unattainable ‘norm’
• satire of women’s fashions, rituals and customs
• use of women’s fashion to telegraph sexual availability

What does Bridget have to learn?

• places too high a value on appearances, not just first impressions (Elizabeth) - eg. rejects Darcy for reindeer sweater, criticizes his sideburns, yet his occupation as human rights lawyer should trump Cleaver’s as weasel
• too dependent on male approval – finds “happiness” when Cleaver chooses her (weekend in country) and feels worthless when he betrays and rejects her, rather than rejecting him
• tends to position herself as passive object, constantly evaluating her presentation of herself for (male) evaluation – eg. interrupts Darcy’s first kiss to change her underwear in belief that the underwear will make her more desirable
• redeems herself by rejecting Cleaver and leaving her job, yet is still dependent upon Darcy’s acceptance of her ‘just as your are’
• points to contemporary society’s harsh criteria for acceptance; perhaps worse than Austen’s era where people were evaluated for money, rank and manners
• Bridget has sexual and financial freedom unknown to middle class women of the 18^th century, yet less connected to family, less confident, and less intellectually autonomous than Elizabeth; suggests 20^th century culture is not as pro-feminist as might be imagined
• 20^th century women suffer public censure for remaining unmarried; Bridget is a ‘spinster’, a ‘singleton’ as opposed to a ‘smug [and therefore, successful] married’-

These terms convey:

• Bridget’s anxiety at not being “chosen” and as therefore lacking in ‘worth’ of a different sort
• society’s discomfort with single women as destabilizing (see dinner party scene where the ‘smug marrieds’ discuss the problem of single women in the office)
• that women are still evaluated for success based on male acceptance