Bridget Jones Character Analysis

In the novel Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bridget is a self-conscious, awkward character that finds herself falling in and out of love. Because of a failed relationship, Bridget finally gains the self-esteem and confidence she was lacking. Bridget, the main character, has conflicting views on her life and in what she wants. Bridget is a woman in her early thirties who has not yet found a husband; this causes Bridget’s parents and most of her friends to pester her about her love life. Bridget eventually has a fling with a man from work named Daniel. He is a charming young man about the same age as Bridget, but he is not looking for a commitment. After Bridget’s attempts to be an “Ice Queen” and ignore Daniel, he finally decides he wants a relationship

with Bridget and they date. Later on, Bridget thinks she might be in love with Daniel but is rudely awakened when she finds out Daniel’s secret and they breakup.

All while this is occurring, Bridget’s parents are fighting therefore her mother has left her father. Her mother felt like for all these years she’s been there “slave” and now she wants to do what she wants. Bridget’s mother has affairs with other men and this drives Bridget’s father crazy and causes him to fall apart. After Bridget’s mother has her taste of men, she realizes what she was really missing: a career. Bridget’s mother became a reporter for the local news and eventually helps Bridget to find a job there.

After Daniel and Bridget break up Bridget starts going out with Mark Darcy. Mark is a divorced yet very successful man who is pushed onto Bridget by her parents. This comedy will have its readers constantly cracking up at Bridget’s sarcasm and her messy life. Like to laugh? Then this book is a must read.

Through analyzing this novel and its characters we can see that Bridget is known as the protagonist or the main character because the story is told from her point of view through her personal diary. Bridget is also a dynamic character because of her developing throughout the novel, At first she is very insecure with her body and her personality but throughout the book Bridget grows into more of a strong woman.

Another character in this novel is Daniel Cleave, and he can be seen a little bit as the protagonist more specifically an anti-hero. Daniel is a handsome and charming man that Bridget works with and at first they just exchange flirty emails but after they start dating Bridget starts to fall in love with Daniel. Not too far into their relationship Bridget finds out that Daniel has been cheating on her all along and he is also engaged to this woman. This makes Bridget hate Daniel even though she actually might still be in love with him.

Another character is Bridget’s mother. Throughout the novel Bridget’s mother can be seen as a static character. Right when Bridget’s mother leaves her father, Bridget’s mother has a newfound confidence and poise that she keeps throughout the novel and tries to give some confidence to Bridget. Bridget’s mother could also be seen as a foil character due to her differences with Bridget. Bridget is insecure while her mother is self-assured and this contrasts them both, but in the end Bridget’s mother teaches Bridget confidence and helps her to become sure of herself..

The last central character in this book would be Mark Darcy. Mark Darcy is another love interest of Bridget, but not until the middle of the book do they even consider being together. Mark can be seen as a dynamic character because at first, he seems like just a quiet smart guy who has no interest in Bridget at all, but towards the end of the book he has a lot more interest in Bridget and can be seen as more sweet and caring than Daniel. Mark could also be seen as a stock character. He is the typical nice guy that opens your door and is a little quiet.

In the end, whom will Bridget choose? The charming and adventurous one who has hurt her or the nice guy who would never let anything happen to her? Read the book to find out which bachelor Bridget chooses.

Helen Fielding, the author of Bridget Jones’s Diary, was born on February 19, 1958, in England to a mill manager and a homemaker (Gale). Fielding received her education from Oxford University (Gale). Fielding was a contributor to the Independent (London, England) and Newsweek (Gale). She achieved international fame with her humorous novel Bridget Jones's Diary, which sold more than four million copies worldwide, and was published in thirty questions (Gale).

In 1994, she had published her first novel, Cause Celeb its success led to an offer from the London Independent for Fielding to do a column in the persona of a character (Gale). The author responded by creating the beloved Bridget Jones, who discussed the often-humorous trials of a single British woman over thirty in the column (Gale). Bridget and the column proved so popular that Fielding turned her adventures into a novel, Bridget Jones's Diary, which became a best-seller in 1996 in the author's native country, and then, two years later, in the United States (Gale). Bridget Jones's Diary also garnered Fielding the prestigious British Book Award, was made into a highly successful motion picture, and generated two sequels, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Bridget Jones's Guide to Life (Gale).

It was Fielding's second novel that made her a literary celebrity (Gale). For Bridget Jones's Diary, the author knew that she could not just take the columns and put them into book form (Gale). Fielding confided to Alexandra Jacobs in Entertainment Weekly that "Bridget's height is kept deliberately vague, like her age, so people can fill in the rest as they choose to imagine and identify with their chosen level of paranoia (Gale). This proves that not only does Fielding care about her readers but, she wants them to enjoy and see the book in their own way.

When writing this novel Helen Fielding was praised by masses of readers and reviewers for the authenticity of the narrative voice (Marsh). However, not everyone was willing to accept the hapless comic heroine as the typical thirty-something single woman of the 1990s, and more demanding critics noted the ways in which Bridget's character and her story are problematic, particularly from a feminist point of view (Marsh). Bridget sets goals--to get to work on time, to stop smoking, to lose weight, to read The Famished Road--and proves incapable of accomplishing any of them (Marsh). She is criticized for the characteristics that ostensibly render her the object of the novel's humor, especially her failure to remake herself and control her life (Marsh). Bridget Jones’s Diary interrogate these assumptions and characterize as a particularly American myth the ideal of self-perfection (Marsh). The novels recall in contrast the world of Jane Austen's fiction, in which self-perfection is treated ironically (Marsh). Ultimately she rejects the American dream of a perfected self in favor of the Blair-era British communitarianism that facilitates both her personal success and the success of her narrative (Marsh). This comparison allows us to contextualize Fielding's work in such a way as to account for her immense popularity but also to identify her real contribution to contemporary literature (Marsh).

More than twenty-five years ago writers like Erica Jong and Adrienne Rich chronicled the perils and triumphs of women in the ERA-age (Durnell).

Today, Helen Fielding chronicles the perils and triumphs of women in the Viagra-age (Durnell). Enter Bridget Jones--thirtyish, chronic smoker, compulsive dieter, "Singleton," office puppet, binge drinker, procrastinator, and VCR klutz (Durnell). Fielding has created an English rose complete with thorns (Durnell). The novel touches on the experience of women who, like Bridget, have put up with more than their share of "Turkey Curry Buffets" (Durnell). Without hesitation, Bridget proclaims herself a feminist--just one of those feminists of the nineties who maintains her independence while waiting for her man to call as he promised (Durnell). The term chick lit is generally used to refer to Fielding's 1996 bestseller Bridget Jones's Diary (Bethman). When used in this sense, chick lit is defined as a "form of women's fiction on the basis of subject matter, character, audience, and narrative style (Bethman).

This book is a must read for any girl teenager or woman. It is relatable, which is most likely why this book did so well. In reality nobody is perfect and in Bridget Jones’s Diary that is seen. Once we stop caring what others think and just be ourselves that’s when we find who we truly are. Just like Bridget found

herself.