Bridget Jones never-ending quest for Prince Charming

Introduction

Published in 1996, Helen Fieldings book Bridget Jones Diary instantly became a
bestseller. A thirty-something single woman who couldnt control her drinking and smoking
habits, who had weight issues and was not happy with her body, who was struggling to be
taken seriously at work and who was struggling to find a man she could spend the rest of her
life with. Helen Fielding identified the confusion of a new generation of women and
crucially allowed her readers to laugh at it.1

This was a heroine that many readers could relate to because some of the problems that
Bridget faced resonated with the daily struggles of the reader.

The novel's success lay in epitomising the experience of the late twentieth-century "everywoman" and
featuring accurately the most fundamental contradictions in which modern women are entrapped. The
humorous depiction of the life of a singleton in her thirties and all her imperfections has filled a niche in
the mainstream fiction and has found acceptance of many readers who have avidly identified
themselves with the models of identity constructed in the narrative.2

Her quest for a Prince Charming aka the perfect man was symbolic for many women. The
books happy end gave the drama a fairy-tale feeling where the ugly duckling gets the Prince.

Fieldings sequel The Edge of Reason gave the readers an insight into the after happy
end story. She portrays Bridgets relationship, its ups and downs with elements of jealousy
and drama, showing the wobbly journey of the heroines relationship with her Prince
Charming. Fraught with insecurities about herself and her relationship, Bridget almost loses
him to another woman. Only until she gets into trouble on a holiday abroad and her Prince
sweeps back to rescue the damsel in distress, eventually sealing their relationship and they
lived happily forever. At least that is what the readers thought!

Moore, Susanne: Why I hate Bridget Jones, Published 30 Sep 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/12/bridget-jones-madboy-review Accessed on 04/08/2014.Web.
2
Smyczynska, Katarzyna: Page 58: The world according to Bridget Jones, Frankfurt: Lang, 2007, Print.

Fieldings latest book in the series Mad about the Boy, shocked3 many readers and
critics alike. The Daily Mail paper called it a toe-curling, clunking disappointment. The
author who disposed off the Prince Charming in an accident shattered the fairy-tale myth of
happy endings. In this novel, Bridget is a widow with two children. She is 51 years old and
lonely and finds herself being pushed back into the game of seeking everlasting love. She
continues to obsess over her weight, struggles to find her bearings in the online dating world
and despairs over the number of her Twitter followers.

The launch of the first book saw something that was touted as the Bridget Frenzy.
Journalists and Feminists hotly debated whether the character of Bridget Jones could be
classified as a Feminist. Because on one hand, the heroine represented the Modern woman
who had moved out of her parents house to the city to be an independent working woman and
enjoyed the liberty of allowing herself sexual freedom. While she symbolised the
contemporary womanhood of the 90s feminists argued that her Bridget was in fact a modern
woman with Victorian ideals because her raison detre is the quest for a man4 a perfect
husband, partner and her exclusive Prince Charming. The subject of a womans necessity to
find a man was the main theme of Jane Austens Pride & Prejudice as well as Bridget Jones
Diary. This paper specifically focuses on the recurring theme of loneliness in the Bridget
Jones Diary series that strongly supports the Victorian ideal: the quest to find the perfect man.
The paper aims to give an updated and fresh perspective on Bridget and her feminism in light
of Fieldings latest book Mad About the Boy.

Bridget Jones: A feminist of our times?

This question has been debated for over a decade dividing women who identify
themselves with Bridget and those who insist that Bridget is anti-feminist. Kelly A.Marsh
summed it up in her paper Contextualizing Bridget Jones.
Helen Fielding was praised by masses of readers and reviewers for the authenticity of the narrative
voice. However, not everyone was willing to accept the hapless comic heroine as the typical thirtysomething 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. Bridget sets goals to get to work on time, to stop smoking, to lose weight, to read The Famished Road - and proves

Bridge, Sarah, Published 7 October 2013: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2448516/Bridget-Jones-Mad-About-The-Boy-reviewsv-gd.html Accessed on 04/08/2014. Web.

4
Meritt, Stephanie, BJD Review, Published: 12 October 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/12/bridget-jones-mad-boyreview Accessed on 04/08/2014. Web.

incapable of accomplishing any of them. Her diary revels hilariously in her insecurities, her mistakes,
and her failures even as it qualifies her successes; as a result, critics suggest that the humour of the
novel is not consciously created by Bridget but rather is generated at her expense. She is criticized for
the characteristics that ostensibly render her the object of the novel's humour, especially her failure to
remake herself and control her life. 5

This problematic aspect of the story shows that Bridget Jones character has had a
two-sided relationship with feminism. This section elaborates further on the problematic
aspect to show how Bridget on the one hand, in her thirties, reaps the benefits of Second
Wave feminism and on the other hand how she shows the traits of a post-feminist
contradicting and even blaming feminism for the state of loneliness she ended up in. A
working definition of second wave feminism for the purpose of this paper would be the
focus that marked this wave namely women as an oppressed social group and the female body
with its need for sexual autonomy as a primary site of that oppression.6 Post feminism in the
context of Bridget Jones as described by Angela McRobbie seems to mean gently chiding
the feminist past, while also retrieving and reinstating some palatable elements, in this case
sexual freedom, the right to drink, smoke, have fun in the city, and be economically
independent.7

Bridget allowed herself to be objectified by her male co-workers, she deliberately

dressed provocatively inviting Daniel to see her as a sexual object and according to her own
admission even enjoyed being sexually harassed by him.8 Bridget benefitted from womens
movements in the past that fought for gender equality and freedom of choice for women and
yet she insisted on reinforcing traditional norms of masculinity and femininity. This
reinforcement of traditional norms still applies to Bridget in Mad About the Boy. Her general
attitude (throughout the three books) when it comes to attaining fulfilment in her life is
always connected to finding the right man. This completely contradicts the consciousness
raising movement.9 Male power is exercised and reinforced through personal institutions
such as marriage, child-rearing and sexual practices.
As Katarzyna Smyczynska point out in her book10

A. Marsh, Kelly: Contextualizing Bridget Jones, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Winter, 2004) , pp. 52-72, Published by: College Literature
Routledge companion to Feminism and Postfeminism Page 31, London: 2004, Print.
7
McRobbie, Angela, The Aftermath of Feminism, Sage: London, 2009, Print.
8
Bridget Joness Diary, Page 25
9
Routledge companion to Feminism and Postfeminism Page 30, London: 2004, Print.
10
Smyczynska, Katarzyna: Page 56: The world according to Bridget Jones, Frankfurt: Lang, 2007, Print.
6

The narratives of contemporary chicklit novels when compared to the traditional romantic novels no
longer focus on the development of the relationship between two main characters, instead depicting the
central character's social life and constructing her as an active, independent woman with a good sense of
humour. ... Despite these changes it can be argued that the construction of the female characters
identities remains conservative, and that their declared independence is undercut by their obsessive hunt
for a man and inner security.

Bridgets biggest flaw that is often criticized by feminists is that she gives away a
large part of the power she has as a woman to the men in her life. Furthermore, Bridget and
the characters she is surrounded by repeatedly persuade the reader to believe that a woman
can only find true happiness when she meets her Prince Charming. In the case of Mad About
the Boy, the Second Prince Charming.

What Bridget fears most is loneliness and thus she is desperate to find the right
man11. As Angela McRobbie puts it The film (BJD) celebrates a kind of scatterbrain and
endearing femininity as though it is something that has been lost. Thank goodness, the film
seems to be saying, that old-fashioned femininity can be retrieved. The reader was led to
believe that Bridgets loneliness and unhappiness was a result of the freedom she was
given. This denoted the theory of backlash as argued by Susan Faludi in her book Backlash:
The Undeclared War Against American Women. Women are told that they are unhappy
because feminism has gone too far, giving them more independence than they handle and
wrecking their relationships with men..12 The theory of backlash in chicklit has been a
recurring theme with feminists. Katarzyna Smyczynska supports Faludis backlash theory in
her book The world according to Bridget Jones where she sums up the feminist debate about
the genre.
Chicklit as an uneasy term that has been criticized for its derogatory, condescending overtones, while
the convention for its apparent perpetuation of stereotypical notions of neurotic, insecure, shoppingobsessed and husband-hunting feminine identity. While to the readers they appear to be packed with
acute critical observations and convincing portrayals of their own experience, Chicklit fictions have
often been accused by feminist critics of breeding backlash rhetoric, disguised in stories about
successful women and postfeminist girls par excellence.13

Faludi argued that the 1980s saw a backlash against feminism given the negative
stereotypes against career women. Single women are grieving from a man-shortage

11

McRobbie, Angela, The Aftermath of Feminism, Sage: London, 2009, Print.

Faludi, Backlash Preface Page
13
Smyczynska, Katarzyna: Page 24: The world according to Bridget Jones, Frankfurt: Lang, 2007, Print.
12

independent womens loneliness represents a major health problem today14 Bridget suffered
immensely through this problem as she was constantly stressed by her loneliness and as a
result she often turned to smoking, drinking and binge-eating. She was relieved to finally have
found Mark Darcy and an end to her loneliness. But in the third book Bridget is back to
square one. She is single/widow not by choice but by circumstance. Her fairy-tale was put to
an abrupt end.

Back in the Dating Scene

Mad about the Boy begins on 19th April 2012. Mark Darcy was killed four years back
by a landmine in Sudan, where he was negotiating the release of aid workers. The admirable
Prince Charming had planned ahead for his damsel in distress. Mark had everything
arranged: financial details, insurance policiesschool fees, home, bills, income, all practical
matters taken care of: no need to work now, just Mabel and Billy my miniature Mark all I
had left of him to keep alive, and to keep me alive.15 Bridget is a devastated widow, who
tries to keep her chin up putting one foot in front of the other16 for the children. Her friends
decide that Bridget has to get laid. Talitha, Tom and Jude fret over Bridget, as Shes
become a Born-Again Virgin. They have a quick-fix solution for her at hand. All she needs
is, as Talitha puts it to lose a bit of weight, and get some Botox and do something with your
hair. A younger, fresh-looking Bridget can be easily marketed on a dating website and in no
time, she will find a suitor. Because loneliness is still unacceptable by the society, it is the
age of rebranding oneself and getting back in the game.

The heroine is the same, as we have always known her: insecure about the way she
looks and feels and looking for love. Maybe have been going through long dark tunnel,
which there is light at the end of. Maybe someone could love me?. Her doubts and fears of
finding the right man, her Prince Charming are echoed in the same fashion as in her thirties.
She feels helpless with her unorganized children as she tries to cope with the chaos in her
house and all the while she misses Mark desperately, longing for someone to fill his place.
Angela McRobbie in her paper17 said of the Bridget.3018 Her infectious girlishness produces
a generational logic which is distinctly post feminist. Despite feminism, Bridget wants to

Faludi, Backlash Introduction Page

14
15

Mad About the Boy

Mad About the Boy
McRobbie, Angela, The Aftermath of Feminism, Sage: London, 2009
18
Bridget.30 is a term I will use throughout this paper to refer to the 30 year old Bridget
16
17

pursue dreams of romance. She found a suitable husband, got married and had children and
dodged ending up as a spinster. She did not pursue a serious career, allowing her Prince
Charming to take care of her and their family.

In order to fill the new vacuum in her life, Bridget tries to discipline herself and get on
the dating bandwagon. Am going to completely change. Am going to return to Zen/New
Age/self-help-book study and yoga. Self-improvement rituals and the pressures of consumer
culture stay with Bridget despite her professional status and economic independence.

Smyczynska pointed out that despite Bridgets outwardly manifested femininity and
sexual emancipation the novels complexity lay in the fact that it problematizes major
celebratory post-feminist premises.
The novels (Chicklit) indicates areas in womens lives in which certain inadequacies have not been
done away with. Even if the narratives do not resolve the tensions they arouse, they accurately point to
the critical spheres of young womens lives, such as limited professional opportunities and a sense of
emotional dissatisfaction bred by pressures of consumer culture.19

Bridget continues to be a victim of consumer culture that is imposed by the images of

beauty as defined by the media. She signs herself up at an obesity clinic; she gets Botox and
fret about her age and appearances. She also pledges to get on social media, get a grip on
using electronic equipment in her house, revamp her wardrobe and start writing her
screenplay. Bridget.5020 allows herself to be prodded and nudged by her friends into going
out one night. She asks Daniel Cleaver, who is now the godfather of her children to babysit.
Bridgets former Emotional fuckwit boyfriend uses his godchildren to impress girls,
brushes Mabels hair with a fork, spoils them with too much candy and is still interested in
knowing what colour Bridgets knickers are.

At the club, she falls for the first guy (Leatherjacketman) who asks her to dance. Her
head is giddy with romance and lust and the eternal dream of finding the Prince Charming. I
felt him, slowly, irresistible, in manner of Mills & Boon hero, moving his lips to find mine.
Back home slightly drunk, aroused by a recent kiss and Daniel half-naked and devilish
makes her flash back to being a thirty-something singleton. Choice is her weapon and she

19
20

Smyczynska, Katarzyna: Page 61-62: The world according to Bridget Jones, Frankfurt: Lang, 2007, Print.
Bridget.50 is a term I will use throughout this paper to refer to the 50 year old Bridget

uses it. She shirks off Daniels advances and prides herself for not having succumbed to the
old routine. Bridget exploits the freedom of choice given to a woman in the post feminist age
to pursue her Prince Charming. Talitha makes the first move for Bridget by sending a text to
Leatherjacketman. Fielding indulges the fairy-tale myth literally at this point in the text. Ive
finally recovered from my embarrassment at fleeing from Prince Charming I feared I would
spontaneously combust or turn into a pumpkin. Bridget admits to falling in love with him
after the first lunch date and then spends the next few days obsessing about him. On the
second date, Bridgets vulnerable side resurfaces when she fails to have sex with
Leatherjacketman. The love story wraps itself up by leatherjacketman bidding Bridget
farewell. However, Bridget as we know her, wallows a little, but soon enough cleans up her
mess and begins the quest for Prince Charming. Her friends play an important role by giving
her tips and advise about the new dating rules. Bridget has aged, but also the dating world
has changed beyond recognition: Facebook, Twitter, e-dating.21 Bridget.50 enters the online
dating world. She starts out with typical dating websites like SingleParentMix.com and has no
luck.

Bridgets Twitter Avatar @JoneseyBJ

It is the Twitterati that Bridget seeks out to communicate with in her lonely hours
when the kids have gone to sleep. Resolved to fix her life, she digs out self-help books on
dating from her thirties archives. She tweets as she reads and gains a few hundred followers
on Twitter. It is in this virtual space that @JoneseyBJ puts her foot in her mouth, revealing
her clumsy self. McRobbie said about the clumsiness of Bridget.30 She makes schoolgirl
errors in her publishing house, not knowing literary critic F.R.Leavis is long dead, she
delivers an incoherent speech at the book launch..22. Bridget.50 tweets silly stuff hoping to
go viral and be popular. But it backfires, throwing her off course, and while she slugs more
wine and continues to tweet, her followers start slagging her off. But not all is lost, as it is in
@JoneseyBJs avatar that Bridget.50 meets @_Roxster. Referred to as the toyboy
throughout the book, a young lover who is much younger than his partner (OED). Bridget
attempts to master these new (Social media) forms of communication and her modest success
leads her to become a very post-millennial ageing female stereotype the cougar. This
section elaborates on how the Cougar phenomenon supports Bridget in making her stance as a
post-feminist.

21Pg27.Ageing
22

McRobbie, Angela, The Aftermath of Feminism, Sage: London, 2009

McRobbie referred to Bridget.30 as a confident young woman These new young

women are confident enough to declare their anxieties about possible failure in regard to
finding a husband, they avoid any aggressive or overtly traditional men, and they brazenly
enjoy their sexuality, without fear of the sexual double standard. Bridget.50 is a lonely
widow, but once she meets Roxster, she enjoys her sexuality again. She reverses the gender
role in the fairy-tale. Bridget.50 has a freelance job as a screenwriter, she is taken care of
financially by Mark, and this time around she does not necessarily need a man to make money
for her and her family. She still yearns for a Prince Charming, but her reasons are different.
She is looking for companionship and for someone to share her journey with her. Sandra
L.Caron, professor of family relations and human sexuality at the University of Maine told the
New York Times23 For a long time weve been fed this idea that women should look for a
man to take care of her, a man that is more educated, has a better job and makes more money.
That might be fine and dandy if youre in high school and have this fairy-tale Prince
Charming. But when you look at adult women, most are self-sufficient and they dont have to
look for that. There are many examples of Cougars in popular fiction that symbolized a new
form of post-feminism.

Samantha Jones, played by Kim Cattral who frequently indulged with younger men in
the series Sex and the City, first brought the Cougar-toyboy phenomenon on TV. Back then
however the term was deemed offensive to women because of the image that it invoked (
image of a wild animal, however sleek and beautiful, prowling for victims young enough to
be their sons)24. In an interview she said, I feel there is nothing predatory about a woman of
a certain age. The stereotype is that the woman is searching for young men like theyre prey
and I just dont think thats good enough. 25 Gabrielle Solis in Desperate Housewives, played
by Eva Longoria, was briefly a cougar when she had an affair with her young gardener.

Over time, feminist perspective on Cougars has changed. Real life examples have
made the term a part of pop culture. Such as the former marriage of Demi Moore and Ashton
Kutcher, who was 15 years younger, or Madonna and Katie Couric. In 2009, ABC Studios
produced a series called Cougar Town26 starring Courtney Cox. The show showed Cox

23

Stanley, Alessandra, Published: September 22, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/arts/television/23cougar.html?_r=1 Accessed

on 04/08/2014, Web.
24
Ibid.
25
Hollywood Life, Published May 24 2010, http://hollywoodlife.com/2010/05/24/kim-cattrall-cougar-sex-and-the-city-2-menopausemagazine-cover-today-show/ Accessed on 04/08/2014, Web.
26
Stanley, Alessandra, Published: September 22, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/arts/television/23cougar.html?_r=1 Accessed

playing Jules, a 40-year-old divorce, obsessed with body issues. The pilot episode opens with
a series of close-up shots of Jules getting out of the shower and examining herself in the
mirror. She touches all parts of her body that are sagging and showing signs of ageing. Crap
is what she says to herself and the way she feels about her body before she even starts her
day. This obsession with trying to look young and denying the age factor is very similar to
Bridget.50 denying reality of ageing process on self Frankly, I refuse to believe how old
I am27.

Another interesting aspect of the series Cougar is that Jules is contrasted directly
with her neighbour across the street, Grayson played by Josh Hopkins, also divorced who
dates younger women. Grayson drives Jules mad with his hypocrisy by judging Jules for
being a Cougar. Jules, just like Bridget is not afraid of being judged for her choice and refuses
the pitying-of-single-women-of-a-certain-age 28 . She lives in the post feminist era
exploiting her freedom and confidence to search for her next Prince Charming.

50 is the new 25, say feminists. They love the idea that newly empowered women
of a certain age are free to conduct their sex lives just like men. 29 Bridget is at first worried
about how to embark on the next phase of her lifes journey without Mark Darcy. Her grief is
not overcome easily. But she takes the challenge of her fate in her stride and pledges to go
back to having it all again: success at work, a loving partner with her children in the tow. Her
friends play an important role encouraging and motivating her and are proud of her success.
Jude remarks on Bridgets announcement that her script is being made into a movie You go,
girl! Toy Boy, screenwriter, youve got it all going on now!30

@JoneseyBJ meets @_Roxster on Twitter and they hit it off almost immediately after
Bridget.50 has made a fool of herself, tweeting silly comments while she was drunk. On her
first date the age factor hits home immediately when she loses her glasses and Roxster teases
her about it. The relationship progresses with giddiness, as Bridget.50 is feeling younger and
is possibly in love again. The reader has a gnawing feeling about this. There is no denying the
fact that Roxster is charming, but the reader has accompanied Bridget through quite a few ups
and downs. Bridgets past record goes to show that she impulsively falls for attractive,

on 04/08/2014, Web.
27
Mad About the Boy, Page 4
28
Ibid.
29
The Washington Times, Published: October 16 2009, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/16/why-feminists-love-cougarsand-young-men-dont/?page=all Accessed on 04/08/2014, Web.
30
Mad About the Boy, Page 19

handsome men (Daniel), being acutely aware of the fact that the relationship possibly has no
future. One sees the glimpses of a teenage girl in Bridget.50 when she obsesses over the lack
of tweets and texts from Roxster.

Bridget.50 enjoys a few dreamy nights with Roxster before she decides on a public
appearance as a couple. This happens at Talithas Party, when Bridget is at first mocked by
friends for her single status. Arriving all on your own again. Where are these boyfriends
weve heard so much about then, eh?31. It only a few minutes when a dramatic turn of events
unfold (Roxster jumps into the pool to save Talithas dog and as a result attracting attention to
his beautiful, young body) and Bridget is branded as the luckiest girl in town inviting
everybodys awe and envy. The age-difference however between the two is a subject that
comes back soon enough in the novel when Roxster wishes he had a time machine and a few
days later he breaks up with Bridget.50, breaking her heart and leaving her to wallow in her
loneliness again. Insecure and heartbroken Bridget.50 now gets herself a botox in the hopes of
reinventing herself because she still hasnt given up on the quest for Prince Charming.

Mad About the Boy has another important character Mr.Wallaker, the school sports
teacher. Tensions between youth and age are brought to bear on the character of
schoolteacher Mr.Wallaker, who refuses to pander to the needy, entitled behaviour of the
parents, but rather manages the children with military precision. Despite the fact that he has
regular encounters with Bridget.50, he is never a candidate for Prince Charming because of
fuzzy details about his marriage. Bridget describes Mr.Wallaker as brooding, annoying,
judgemental32, grumpy bastard33, rude, bossy34.
As the Mr.Right of this volume, his encounters with Bridget are characterized by misunderstandings
and bad timing, and his Darcy-like hauteur is explained by traumas experienced in the SAS in
Afghanistan. A more age-appropriate match for Bridget and described as rather like Daniel Craig, this
bond reference marks him out as a man rather than a boy.

Every time Bridget meets Mr.Wallaker, she comes across as a damsel in distress.
The pattern is familiar to the readers where the Prince Charming plays the role of a saviour.
Mark Darcy saved Bridgets mother from jail and shame when she risks jail because of Julios
swindling. He rescued Bridget when she had a cooking disaster trying to prepare a meal for

31

Mad About the Boy Page 305

Ibid. Page 172
Ibid. Page 173
34
Ibid. Page 288
32
33

10

her friends. In Mad About the Boy Mr.Wallaker rescues Bridget and her children when they
are stuck on a tress. Mr.Wallaker plays an important role in Bridgets sons life where he acts
as a mentor teaching Billy discipline. He also criticizes Bridget when she fails to organize her
children. Once the details of his marriage are cleared, Bridgets attitude towards him changes
and her quest for her Prince Charming finally ends! Or so we hope until Fieldings next book.

Conclusion

Fielding touched important aspects of post-feminism in her latest book where she shows
Bridget as a working mother juggling the pressures of single motherhood along with a career,
the void she experiences after Marks death and the way society treats her when she is dating
a younger man. In reviving Bridget now, Fielding has dared to question the happy ending,
and in doing so she holds a mirror up to our changing values. True love is not guaranteed for
life, even in romcoms, and women in their 40s and 50s are no longer prepared to fade away,
alone and invisible.35

Bridgets battle with her age and her being out of sync with the latest technology depict a very
realistic picture of a woman in the post-feminist society. Fielding also brings the important
subject of Ageing and Feminism and the stereotypes associated with it to light. This opens an
important debate about how Cougars are perceived in the society and the question of when a
woman should give up her quest for her Prince Charming. The many reviews that I read as a
part of my research were negative and mocked Fielding for doing what many other writers
have written since the time of the first Bridget Jones book.

However, the few positive reviews have stressed the need to identify with Bridget and new
problems because Bridget with the first Fielding book had become a cultural icon. And to
have this cultural icon revamped and thrown into a new situation gives the fan following a
chance to revisit their favourite heroine and look at her with an updated feminist perspective.
Mad About the Boy, could be dismissed as fiction again like Fieldings first book initially was
or it could revive the debate about Ageing and Feminism in the field of gender studies.

35

Meritt, Stephanie, BJD Review, Published: 12 October 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/12/bridget-jones-mad-boyreview Accessed on 04/08/2014. Web.

11