The Pressures of Being Single
From the outset of Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding establishes Bridget's singleton status—and the frustrations associated with it—as one of the novel's central themes. The theme first arises when Bridget lists her New Year's resolutions, which include several references to her disastrous dating history and current discomfort with being single. Bridget also declares an intention to stop sulking about not being in a relationship, and resolves to become a complete woman within herself; however, Bridget also acknowledges that she wishes to develop inner poise and self-sufficiency only to attract a partner. As the novel progresses, Fielding depicts how Bridget must deal with her parents' friends' tactless inquiries about her love life, and how dinner parties at her married friends' homes often turn out to be attempts to set her up with "increasingly horrifying" single men. Bridget's struggle against the societal expectation that she couple up before she is too old to have children also contributes to the way she overlooks red flags in her relationship with Daniel, who winds up cheating on her. However, Bridget's single status changes when she finds love with Mark Darcy, and she concludes that the calamitous year has been "excellent" overall.
Marital Strife
Marital strife—conflict that arises in a marriage—is another major theme in the novel. Early in the book, Bridget senses that something has changed about her mother. She soon learns that her mother met a Portuguese tour operator and is fed up with her marriage to Bridget's father, who she says is like all the men who "make such a fuss about doing the bills and the taxes—as if that excuse[s] them from thirty years of washing-up." To appease Bridget's mother, Mr. Jones moves into their friends' granny flat in their back garden, leaving Pam free to date outside their marriage and pursue a new career in television—all of which horrifies Bridget. Bridget also witnesses strife enter Magda and Jeremy's marriage, the stability of which is threatened when Jeremy confesses to having a crush on another woman. Ultimately, these instances of marital strife contrast with Bridget's unhappiness as a single person, showing that being married does not guarantee the contentment and security Bridget often imagines.
Friendship
Friendship is a dominant theme in Bridget Jones's Diary. Throughout the book, Bridget details how her close friends Tom, Jude, Magda, and Sharon are always available to give their opinions, offer advice, and comfort her when she is feeling lonely or depressed. While Bridget sometimes contacts her parents when she needs comfort, her group of best friends provides the bulk of the emotional support Bridget seeks. Her friends are particularly helpful during Bridget's rollercoaster romance with Daniel, as her friends can see far more clearly than Bridget that he is not a reliable partner. Fielding also builds on the theme of friendship when Bridget tries to cook an elaborate dinner on her birthday and winds up regretting her decision to host: having predicted that Bridget's meal wouldn't materialize, one of Bridget's friends has booked a table at a restaurant and told everyone to meet her there. Bridget concludes her diary entry stating that she loves her friends, who often know her better than she knows herself.
Indulging and Dieting
The New Year's resolutions that open the novel introduce the major theme of indulging and dieting—two impulses Bridget is forever caught between. At the top of most diary entries, Bridget keeps track of her daily consumption habits, recording the number of cigarettes she has smoked, drinks she has drunk, and calories she has eaten. Alongside the tallies is Bridget's current weight, which only fluctuates within a range of a few pounds. Depending on her mood, Bridget will either indulge her vices, smoking and drinking excessively and eating as much junk food as she likes, or restrict herself by cutting out alcohol and cigarettes and more or less starving herself by eating less than the minimum recommended daily calories. Ultimately, Bridget's obsessive tabulation of her consumption habits speaks to her unsteady relationship with self-control and to how she struggles with accepting her body as it is.
Male Immaturity
A common topic among Bridget and her friends when they meet for drinks or dinner, male immaturity is an important theme in Bridget Jones's Diary. Fielding introduces the theme during Bridget's New Year's resolutions, which see her pledging not to fall in love with emotionally unavailable or otherwise dysfunctional men. Coining the term "emotional fuckwittage," Bridget and her friends often lament the all-too-predictable behavior of the men they date. Featured prominently on the list of offenders are commitment-phobic men who refuse to talk about moving in together despite many years in a relationship and others who propose only to back out weeks later. While Bridget hopes her crush Daniel will turn out to be different from the other men in her social sphere, he turns out to be among the worst offenders, only interested in Bridget when she ignores him, and, once they are together, only caring about having sex with her. Ultimately, Mark Darcy stands as a shining example of male dependability when held in contrast to Daniel.
Middle-Class Social Conventions
As a comedic satire, Bridget Jones's Diary features many instances in which middle-class social conventions are showcased and mocked. The theme first arises when Bridget has to drive out of London to attend her parents' friends' Turkey Curry Buffet, an annual New Year's Day ritual that involves middle-class Brits gathering to drink too much and interrogate the younger generation about their love lives and careers. The atmosphere is so stultifying that Bridget mistakes Mark Darcy as just another middle-class bore when she meets him, unable to predict that she will eventually fall in love with him. The theme of middle-class social conventions also arises whenever Bridget's mother corrects her way of speaking, never failing to tell Bridget to say "pardon" when Bridget says "what." Bridget also resents her superior at work, Perpetua, who epitomizes middle-class snobbery with constant discussions of property deals her successful husband is closing. But while Bridget resents the clichéd manifestations of bourgeois values all around her, she nonetheless fantasizes about settling down to a conventional middle-class life like her friend Magda, who Bridget envies for having nice middle-class things like tasteful display jars of eight different types of pasta.
Love
Love is another major theme in the novel. From the book's opening, Bridget declares her desire to find love and form a functional relationship with another human. During her flirtation with Daniel, Bridget returns often to the refrain in her diary that she loves him, but in hindsight it is clear that their connection is based mainly on the sexual friction created by the taboo of being subordinate and boss. As the book goes on, Bridget takes note of the various relationships in her milieu, observing the many conflicts that complicate people's love. For Bridget, the purest and simplest love in her life comes from her friends and her father, all of whom treat her with respect and give her unconditional support. In terms of romantic love, Bridget doesn't have her wishes fulfilled until Mark Darcy reveals that he is in love with her—an admission that opens Bridget to the undeniable truth she loves him too. The book ends with Bridget concluding that of all her resolutions, she has kept only one, having formed a functional relationship with Mark, a responsible adult.
