Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary

Bridget Jones’s Diary is a highly imaginative interpretation of the novel Pride and Prejudice, so different to be hardly recognizable. Discuss.

Directed by Sharon Maguire in 2001, one hundred and eighty-eight years after Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813, with that, Bridget Jones’s Diary would seem be quite diverse to Pride and Prejudice. But it is actually a highly imaginative interpretation of the novel. This modern interpretation is seen through the plot, characters, context, values, language and film techniques.

Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary can be quite deceivable to the extent in which they are similar. To begin with, 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 a voice over and it states, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that the moment one area of your life goes okay, the other falls spectacularly to pieces.” This direct appropriation reveals the similarities between the texts and allows reproduction of Pride and Prejudice through Bridget Jones’s Diary to be noticeable.

Bridget Jones’s Diary and Pride and Prejudice do endure a similar plot. The protagonist is female; she is looking for love and is under pressure to find love particularly 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 inexcusable 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 analogous resemblance of the two texts is the distinctive alike characters. Bridget Jones’s Diary reproduces numerous characters which are modern day creations of characters from Pride and Prejudice. Darcy’s character in both Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary is similar. In the last mentioned the first feeling of likeness of this character comes when the name Darcy appears. First of all the name is the same, but as we get to know the character we can also recognize traits of character. Both of them are highly respected barristers. The female characters’ first impression of Darcy is equivalent, as stated in Pride and Prejudice describing Darcy as “…Proud, above his company and above being pleased.” And it is not without reason. In Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth overhears a conversation between Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley when he talks