Bridget Jones Diary

135 lbs., alcohol units 0 (v.g.), cigarettes 0 (would be difficult because I don't smoke), calories 2250 (must do better tomorrow!). These are the inner thoughts of some women on a daily basis and in Bridget Jones's Diary; Helen Fielding makes single women feel like they are not alone. Through incidents of self doubt, heartache, and the anxiety of being single forever, Fielding allows readers who have faced or are facing the same situations to take a break, sit back and have a laugh at Bridget's expense.

Bridget Jones's Diary is a story about the life of a girl determined to have it all. Bridget is the thirty-something we are all frightened of becoming or know that we have already become. She is every woman who has looked in the mirror and groaned because she has put on an extra 10 pounds by eating all the Christmas chocolate so it won't be lying around and resolved to do something about it whether it's getting a gym membership or counting calories.

Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy are the antagonists of the story. Both men send Bridget into a frenzy whenever they are around. Daniel is flirtatious and can be somewhat of a jerk when it comes to women. He is the type of man who will do anything to sleep with every woman and he's the type of man that every woman should be warned about by their mothers when they are growing up. Mark Darcy on the other hand is smart, cautious and rather smuggish. He is always dressed in preppy clothes such as a diamond sweater and always appears to act kind of shy when he is around Bridget. They carry on conversation, but sometimes the topics make Bridget flinch, such as the first time they met; Mark asked Bridget if she had read any good books lately, and Bridget couldn't answer because she was too worried about what Mr. Darcy was going to think of her. After her failed first attempt with Mr. Darcy, Bridget blames herself for not being able to fall in love; she feels that she isn't able to find true love because she is always going to find a way to flub it up.

Bridget's mother makes her feel guilty by overwhelming Bridget with a sense of her own unexplored possibilities, saying "you've simply got too much choice" (169). Mrs. Jones exemplifies the exercising of choice. She leaves her husband for a Portuguese tour guide, deciding that she deserves more sexual fulfillment. She takes a job as a talk-show host after "realizing, when your father retired, that I had spent thirty-five years without a break running his home and bringing up his children" (47). She expects Bridget to explore her choices similarly. However, at the end of the novel, Mrs. Jones ends up quite happily back at home, finding that she likes her old self as well as or better than the other selves she has tried on.

Bridget's mother is not the only force encouraging Bridget to change. The myth of self-perfection saturates Bridget's perception of her life. In many ways, American culture is very present to Bridget. She considers herself "a child of Cosmopolitan culture" (52), and many of her role models are American women. Long before Daniel confesses that he plans to marry an American (161), he goes to New York on business, and Bridget obsesses, "He will clearly by now have got off with thin American cool person called Winona who puts out, carries a gun and is everything I am not" (35). Bridget is fascinated with "everything I am not," the choices and selections she has made, the things she has ruled out. For Bridget, the U.S. is a place where one choice or failing does not necessarily rule out other choices or opportunities for success, instead it is a place where the self can be constantly re-made.

Fielding does a very good job of developing each character throughout the novel. By using a first person point of view, she allows Bridget to describe each person as she sees them in each scene. By maintaining Bridget's voice throughout, the diary format Fielding also allows the reader to judge the character and their predicaments and how they relate to Bridget