Female Protagonist in “Pride and Prejudice” and in “Bridget Jones Diary”

Analytical Essay:

Write an essay analyzing the similarities and differences between the female protagonist in “Pride and Prejudice” and the female protagonist in “Bridget Jones Diary”.

Directed by Sharon Maguire in 2001, one hundred and eighty-eight years after Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813, Bridget Jones’s Diary would seem be quite different compared to Pride version is seen through the plot, characters, context, values, and language and film techniques. Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary can be quite changing to the extent in which they are similar. The first line from Pride and Prejudice states “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” This line has been modified in Bridget Jones’s Diary as, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that the moment one area of your life goes okay, the other falls spectacularly to pieces.”

This shows the similarities between the texts and allows parts of Pride and Prejudice through Bridget Jones’s Diary to be noticeable. Bridget Jones’s Diary and Pride and Prejudice do have a similar plot. The protagonist is female; she is looking for love and is under pressure to find love by her mother. The protagonist meets a man but his pride and her prejudice keeps them apart. She has been led to believe that the man is dishonest and had been involved in some promiscuous past behavior. Yet he learns to love her “just the way she is” and she learns the truth about her past behavior and he lets go of his “pride” and she lets go of his “prejudice” and they ironically fall in love.

In analyses of the plot outline we see the texts do resemble each other and Bridget Jones’s Diary is a highly imaginative interpretation of Pride and Prejudice. Another resemblance of the two texts is the distinctive alike characters. Bridget Jones’s Diary reproduces numerous characters which are modern versions of characters from Pride and Prejudice. Darcy’s character in both Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary is similar. First of all the name is the same, but as we get to know the character we can also recognize traits of character. The first impression of Darcy is the same, in Pride and Prejudice Darcy is described as “Proud, above his company and above being pleased.”

In Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth overhears a conversation between Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley when he talks about her: “she is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me.” Likewise in Bridget Jones’s Diary Bridget overhears Mark Darcy state to his mother describing Bridget as a “verbally incontinent spinster who drinks like a fish, smokes like a chimney and dresses like her mother.” In Bridget Jones’s Diary we find Wickham in Daniel Cleaver. He is handsome, out- going, charming and popular among the women, same as Wickham. These two characters have a striking similarity, and have the same actions.

Daniel claims that Mark has had a relationship with his former fiancée, while the truth is that it was the other way around. Bridget and Elizabeth’s character is very different yet has some similar characteristics; they both are opinionated, impulsive, passionate, and embarrassed by their mother. Sure, we could never imagine Elizabeth smoking, drinking, or referring to herself as a “wanton goddess.” After all, Bridget Jones’s Diary, like Pride and Prejudice, is busy with marriage.There are also several other aspects one can say are the same in these two writings. Both of the mothers behave foolishly, and they are eager to get their daughters married. If the coming –son – in law has a fortune and a good income, it is a distinct advantage as stated by Mrs. Benet; “a single man with large fortune what a fine thing for our girls.”

The contexts of the two writings make the interpretation of Pride and Prejudice in Bridget Jones’s Diary hardly shown. In 1813 when Pride and Prejudice was published society was a lot different to today’s way of life. There was no traces of technology, people traveled on horse and cart and letters were used to communicate between long distances. Sharon Maguire directed Bridget Jones’s Diary one hundred and eighty-eight years after Pride and Prejudice was published in 2001. The viewer is exposed to a completely different world full of technology where communication between people is shown through emailing, telephones and television. This urgency to be married is shown continuously throughout Pride and Prejudice.

It is seen as very desirable for women to be married in their early twenties, this is shown as Charlotte Lucas purely marries Mr. Collins in convenience as she was in her late twenties and was ‘running out of time.’ Yet in Bridget Jones’s Diary it was shown that it is acceptable to be in your thirties and not married, such as Bridget’s friends who still find life beyond marriage. To have wealth and to marry a wealthy man is shown to be an awfully important element of a good man. We see this in both texts through Mrs. Benet “A single man of large fortune, four or five thousand a year, what a fine thing for our girls” as she talks about Mr. Bigly knowing nothing of him.

This corresponds with Mrs. Jones as she talks of Mark Darcy as being a good match for Bridget because “he’s a barrister, very well off.” The relationships which are shown in Bridget Jones’s Diary such as Bridget and Daniel are quite together, with them on the first date this would have been unthinkable in Elizabeth’s time. In Bridget Jones’s Diary the action between Bridget and Daniel happened at the office, at the workplace. The action in Pride and Prejudice is not in a workplace, but mostly at balls and in people’s homes. It was there that people meet a contrast between Bridget Jones Diary and Pride and Prejudice is the language used which also shows in the context.

Pride and Prejudice is written for middle to upper class citizens and it uses sophisticated language which is quite poetic; “there are very few people whom so much can be said” This language was very common is Austen’s time and the novel also uses out dated words such as “tythes. Bridget Jones’s Diary uses a range of language from formal to informal language, Daniel and Bridget’s emailing shows formal language. Bridget Jones’s Diary is a highly imaginative interpretation of the novel Pride and Prejudice, so different to be hardly recognizable.