Character sketch

Mark Darcy

He is rich and handsome. He is a gentleman. His work is very prestigious – he is a successful lawyer. Mark is divorced and it could be a cause of disappointment in all women and usually he doesn’t trust them. He is under pressure of his parents who are looking for a new girlfriend or even wife for him. And their new victim is Bridget, they got acquaintance during New Year’s party and the first impression was not so pleasant because of his  a V-neck diamond-pattern in shades of yellow and blue( favoured by the more elderly of the nation's sports reporters) sweater,his haughtiness and Bridget's vulgarity.

“The rich, divorced-by-cruel-wife Mark – quite tall – was standing with his back to the room, scrutinizing the contents of the Alconburys' bookshelves: mainly leather-bound series of books about the Third Reich, which Geoffrey sends off for from Reader's Digest. It struck me as pretty ridiculous to be called Mr Darcy and to stand on your own looking snooty at a party. It's like being called Heathcliff and insisting on spending the entire evening in the garden, shouting 'Cathy' and banging your head against a tree”

He didn’t like Bridget from the first sight perhaps he found her a bit stupid but later he started to protect her and prove that she is not so foolish as she looks.

Also he has difficult relationships with Daniel. They studied together and were a kind of friends but finally Daniel slept with his wife and it was the cause of their divorce and further hatred between the old friends. 

Most of Bridget's fiends don't like him because they judge according to her opinion but all people arround him see Mark outstanding and brainy creature. 

Questions and Answers + Phrase from text

Life goes on and Bridget’s adventures too. Her biggest dreams come true. First of all she get to her ideal weight  8st7 ( about 54kg). But all her friends start to ask about her health and if she is ill, her best friend even advises to return her old sizes what allow her officially eat all that she wants. The second important event is her boyfriend (Guess who he is, his name will be missed in the further sentences). So they become lovers. But he doesn’t accompany her at any parties, if she wants to have a picnic he begs her to stay home and watch TV. Obviously he gets what he wants. Why is it so? Does she love him so much? But such permissiveness does not bear fruit. Bridget wants to be married ( By the way, why does she want it? Is she ready for it or there is another reasons?) so her boyfriend is ready to make a proposal.

 But here is a snag. His future wife is a leggy blonde from NY. Not Bridget. Never Bridget. But why was he dating with her?

It’s interesting how Bridget knew about the future wife of her already ex-boyfriend. Actually Bridget caught them red handed. She returned after a party earlier than she wanted because of her unsuitable costume – everyone had tuxedos and beautiful dresses and she wore a bunny girl outfit. She didn’t go home afterwards and went to her lover ( to spoil the terrific evening even more). And firstly he just didn’t open the door that puzzled Bridget but she started to guess why

“In denial I told myself he was just laundering money or dealing in drugs. He was probably trying to hide polythene bags full of cocaine under floorboards helped by some smooth South American men with ponytails.”

Unfortunately, he was not only a drug dealer, he was unfaithful. Poor Bridget...

So they broke up.

What will Bridget do after? Can she forgive this skunk? Will she switch on her inner poise and coldness or she will be begging him to leave that blond and restart their relations?

About Bridget and other important characters

She is 30, she doesn’t have a family and even a boyfriend. She smokes, drinks and eats too much. There are no ambitions, self-confidence and any plans in her life. She is dreamy, spontaneous and unorganized. She is real.

 Her mother always interferes in her life and does everything to made Bridget to live as SHE wants. Does she try to make up leeway in her life? Oh yes. What is the result? She couldn’t change anything in Bridget’s life and decided to change hers – she left her husband, started to work on TV and even found a new boyfriend ( I would say that she is much more successful than our main character). Sure Bridget’s father suffers but how can she help them if she has much more problems
in life and has almost no experience?

 Also Bridget has a lot of friends. All the women read such books as “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus” ( I’m not against the book but Helen Fielding expresses her point of view rather forthrightly), don’t give any useful pieces of advice and all in all they are not very clever. What help can it be if one is cheated by her husband, another is an absolute feminist, the relations of the third are absolutely unstable? Her only friend that seems to me pretty is a guy Tom who is a part of LGBT community.

Finally, there are two important men in the book – Daniel, her boss, and Mark Darcy, favorite of Bridge’s mother (familiar surname, isn’t it?).

Daniel Cleaver – HHH – handsome, hot, heinous. Bridget is in love with him but he is too good for her, at least I think so. Will they have any relations? Will she achieve this level?

Mark Darcy. Just recollect his namesake from Pride and Prejudice and you can understand who he is. Arrogant, overweening, clever but nice. Also he hates Daniel and disapproves any relations with him.

What side will be chosen by Bridget? Everyone knows that good girls prefer bad boys but she is too unexpected for such an obvious act.