Study Guide to Bridget Jones’s Diary

By Helen Fielding (Picador, 1996)

Key concepts

Identity, purpose, love, commitment, image, relationships

Summary

This is the fictional diary of a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a 30-something single woman working in the media - and on an apparently doomed quest for self-improvement.

She is desperate to find a man who will be truly committed to her - instead of just using her and leaving her. She lurches from torrid affair to pregnancy scare. She worries about dying alone and being eaten by an alsation. She is convinced that if only she could get down to 8st 7lb, stop smoking and give up Lottery Instants then all would be fine.

Cultural significance

Bridget Jones’s Diary was originally a weekly column in the Independent but now runs in the Daily Telegraph on Saturdays. The book has been published in over 20 countries and has sold over a million copies making it one of a tiny handful of massive hits. Many people find they identify with something of Bridget’s character. The Diary has very clear parallels with the hugely popular Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The film rights have been sold and Helen Fielding is working on the screenplay. Colin Firth is lined up to play Mark Darcy.

Biographical background

Helen Fielding is a thirty-something single woman who claims she bears no resemblance to Bridget Jones at all. She worked for several years at the BBC before becoming a writer.

Other books by Helen Fielding

Helen Fielding, Cause Celeb (Picador, 1994)

Other resources on these ideas

Nick Hornby, High Fidelity (Indigo, 1996)

Oliver James, Britain on the Couch (Century, 1997)

Overview

Bridget's year begins with a huge set of New Year resolutions and a New Year's Day buffet at the home of her parents' friends, Geoffrey and Una. Mark Darcy ("He's one of those top-notch barristers. Masses of money. Divorced") is there with his parents. Mark and Bridget have known each other since childhood. Now that he is rich, Bridget's mother would like the two of them to get together. Mark is standing alone at the party wearing a V-neck blue and yellow diamond-patterned sweater and white socks with a yellow bumblebee motif—all of which puts Bridget off.

Bridget returns to work reluctantly but she and her boss, Daniel Cleaver spend the next couple of weeks exchanging flirtatious emails. Eventually they go out on a date; Daniel takes her home with the intention of sleeping with her but sees it as just a bit of fun. Bridget storms out as she is looking for commitment - but is worried by the prospect of remaining single for life. Tom, her gay friend, assures her that this is just the right approach to make Daniel desperate for her. Bridget's 'Smug Married' friends give her a hard time because she is single but her very feminist friend Sharon (Shazzer) cheers her up by reminding her that 'singletons' have more fun than married people.

Bridget's mother starts a relationship with Julio whom she met on holiday in Portugal and asks Bridget's father to leave. Bridget decides that her mother has discovered power—and feels that she herself has no power over anything. Daniel and Bridget start flirting again. Daniel gets to sleep with her and then makes no further contact for some days until he invites her to Prague for the weekend. He later backs out of this, provoking one of many crisis meetings with Sharon, Jude and Tom.

For her birthday Bridget invites her friends around for a meal. Her preparations are disastrous but when the friends arrive, they take her out for a meal as they 'd anticipated the mess Bridget would be in. Bridget is very aware of not always being in control. She tries to develop inner poise and is cool towards Daniel for three weeks. Meanwhile, Bridget's mother gets a job on daytime TV presenting a slot called 'Suddenly Single'

At a book launch party Bridget bumps into Mark Darcy—this time without the 'Frank Bough-style diamond patterned sweater' which makes him much more attractive to Bridget. With him is tall, thin, glamorous Natasha.

Towards the end of April comes an 'historic and joyous day.' Bridget has finally achieved her ideal weight of 8st 7. At a party a few days later, her friends all think she is tired and not her usual self. Tom rings up afterwards because he is concerned about her. He tells her that she looked better before she lost the weight. Bridget is totally deflated.

Daniel turns up drunk at Bridget's flat one night. He stays and Bridget decides that she is in love and quite possibly pregnant. She worries about this but also nurtures a dream of having a family with Daniel. She finally buys a pregnancy testing kit and gets a blue line. In a panic she rings Sharon. When they meet Sharon looks at the results and explains to Bridget that there should be two lines if she was pregnant, not one. The relationship with Daniel continues. First he is charming but later boring as he insists on staying in on sunny days to watch cricket on TV. Bridget begins to suspect—for no reason in particular—that he is also seeing someone else.

Geoffrey and Una hold a Tarts and Vicars garden party. Bridget gets all dressed up but Daniel refuses to go at the last moment. When she arrives, no-one else is in fancy dress—the plans had been changed but no-one had told her. Mark Darcy is at the party with Natasha. Afterwards, wearing a borrowed floral bridesmaid's dress to cover up her bunny-girl outfit, Bridget goes round to Daniel's. He won't let her in as he claims to be on the phone to America. He tells her to meet him in the pub in ten minutes. Now Bridget is very suspicious and eventually persuades Daniel to let her in. She desperately tries to find some signs of another woman but without success when suddenly she hears a scraping noise from the roof garden. Bridget leaps up the stairs and out onto the roof where 'spread out on a sun-lounger, was a bronzed, long-limbed, blonde-haired, stark-naked woman.' Bridget feels her life is falling apart but her mother lines up a new job for her as a researcher for a TV programme. After a while she gets a chance to do some reporting but only manages to embarrass herself on air.

Mark invites Bridget to a silver wedding party for his parents. She doesn't want to go but her father wants some moral support so she accepts. During the course of the evening Mark invites Bridget out to dinner but he apparently fails to turn up on the evening. It turns out that he had called for her but she hadn't heard because of the noise of her hairdryer.

Some time later Bridget organises a dinner party to which she invites Mark. The food is disastrous and during the evening Bridget's father rings to tell her that her mother and Julio are wanted by the police for fraud. Mark goes to Portugal to try to sort things out and Bridget hears nothing from him for four weeks. On Christmas day Julio arrives at Bridget's parent's house followed by Mark (who had been tracking Julio down and trying to get the stolen money back) and the police. Julio is arrested and Mark whisks Bridget off to a hotel for the rest of Christmas and the start of their relationship.

The book concludes with a summary of Bridget's progress with her New Year's resolutions—she has managed to keep just one: forming a functional relationship with a responsible man.

Ideas for discussion

1. What do you think Bridget's beliefs are?

2. Summarise her values and attitudes to

a. life

b. relationships

3. other people

4. work

3. How often does Bridget act in a way which is consistent with her values?

4. What sort of image is Bridget trying to achieve? How?

5. What role does Tom play in Bridget's life?

6. Bridget joins in with the 'feminist rants' of her friends, Sharon and Jude. To what extent do they really believe what they say?

7. What message do you think the author is trying to convey?

8. What are some of the barriers to Bridget and those like her responding to the Gospel?

9. What might be some good approaches when trying to reach Bridget and those like her with the Gospel?

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