Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary: Comparative Analysis

With her signature insight, Jane Austen delves into the depths of the words which comprise of the title of the novel Pride and Prejudice. Every single of the characters in the novel displays either pride or prejudice or both, in 1 way or yet another. Written in the 1800s, the dynamic Pride and Prejudice set the stage for other authors and screenwriters, among other folks to generate equivalent operates which explored the ideas of initial impressions and the way in which prejudices can lead to a single to be prideful but can also change within time. Some of the modern performs which have stemmed from Pride and Prejudice include Beauty and the Beast, Death Comes to Pemberly, Bride and Prejudice and so on. Bridget Jones’s Diary is another one of these functions which is really related to Pride and Prejudice. In the movie Bridget Jones’s Diary, the director Sharon Maguire is in a position to maintain the major idea of Pride and Prejudice utilizing characters with similar qualities and lives as these in the novel. The audience is introduced to Bridget, Daniel, and Mark, all of whom share evident similarities to Lizzy, Wickham, and Darcy, respectively. With the use of parallel plots and characters, Bridget Jones’s Diary can very best be described as a contemporary-day spin-off of Pride and Prejudice.

The film begins with Bridget telling the audience that it “is her 32nd year of getting single” and explains that every year her mother “tries to repair her up.” This currently sets the tone for a Pride and Prejudice kind of tale. Bridget, like Elizabeth, is of age to marry but has not discovered a appropriate spouse. Similar to the case of Lizzy, Bridget also faces the added stress of a mother who continuously reminds her that she wants to find a husband. What Mrs. Bennet and Bridget’s mother have even a lot more in frequent is their determination to ensure that their daughters marry a wealthy man who can make them feel financially safe. For instance, when discussing Mr. Bingley’s arrival to town, Mrs. Bennet mentions how fantastic it is for her daughters that he is “a single man of huge fortune” (Austen four). Bridget’s mother also emphasizes on how Mark is “well-to-do” when attempting to convince Bridget of his suitability as a achievable future spouse. Both females face continual pressures from exterior sources to settle down. The two characters take place to have their mothers as the most intense contributors to these pressures. In this way, Bridget and Elizabeth are very relatable characters who go via the exact same struggle at the hands of society.

The parallelism does not end there. Elizabeth and Bridget, in related circumstances, show and receive prejudices from and towards Darcy and Mark upon their initial meetings with every other. In Pride and Prejudice following Elizabeth’s 1st encounter with Darcy she formulates an opinion about him. Elizabeth judged Darcy primarily based off of his comportment and quickly reached the conclusion that she did not like him. When speaking to the Lucas’s about him, she says, “I could very easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine” (Austen 41). Elizabeth shares 3 essential factors with the reader in this sentence. She explicitly states that Darcy is prideful, that she is also proud and that she is in fact holding a grudge because of Darcy’s negative comments regarding her beauty. Subsequently, in Bridget Jones’s Diary this is noticed when Bridget first meets Mark and draws a conclusion about him primarily based on his sweater and the fact that he lives with his mother nonetheless. In addition to that, Bridget overhears Mark telling his mother that Bridget is a “verbally incontinent spinster who smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish, and dresses like her mother.” All of these factors turn Bridget off to the possibility of ever considering a future with Mark. These two events show how Elizabeth and Bridget share in their prideful nature as effectively as embarrassing experiences. It also touches on the prejudiced nature of Mark and Darcy which causes them to strain their chances at any kind of relationships with Bridget and Lizzy. With 4 characters from both novels sharing such distinct similitudes in behavior, the parallelism which exists between the two stories becomes far more apparent.

Another similar predicament Lizzy and Bridget discover themselves in is a ‘love triangle.’ At a single point in time in Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth finds herself falling for the sweet and charming Wickham whilst Darcy still has strong feelings for her. Wickham manages to grasp Lizzy’s focus at very first sight as “Mr. Wickham was as far beyond” (Austen 176) all the other officers Lizzy laid eyes on. Wickham coaxed Lizzy into believing that Darcy was a wicked particular person till the truth came out and Lizzy found that Darcy was actually a very good soul whilst Wickham was the contrary. In Bridget Jones’s Diary, Daniel seems to be the ‘Wickham’ of the film. He charms Bridget for a even though and makes her think he is the better selection as opposed to Mark. As anticipated, Bridget comes to the realization that Daniel’s story regarding Mark is a fallacy and that Mark is the much more decent human getting. Both Lizzy and Bridget end up with the males they previously detested. Even even though, they are presented with two guys and are puzzled for a period of time as to who to decide on, Lizzy and Bridget are in a position to make the right choice once they get rid of their pride and Darcy and Mark do so as effectively. Consequently, Maguire and Austen introduce a comparable view relating to the importance of remaining humble. They do so by incorporating this enjoy triangle and allowing Lizzy and Bridget to successfully dissolve it right after becoming much more humble.

Even though the movie was filmed in the 21st century and the book was written in the 19th century, Sharon Maguire and Jane Austen are able to make the stories relevant to the time period and relatable to one another. Bridget Jones’s Diary utilizes a more modern day approach to addressing how pride and prejudice can affect relations and how individuals and conditions can alter when those two items are taken out of the equation. Austen echoes these same points but during a time period when pride and prejudice were far more prevalent due to the way society was set up and the clear social hierarchy at the time. Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary are very related functions which convey the same message thanks to the use of parallel characters.