The Bridget Jones's Diary is a romance novel, and as such is focused on the romantic relationship between two persons. The heroine of the story, Bridget, is a 30 year old woman who is still single and is still looking for her true love. The theme of the story is about love, attraction and responding to obstacles in the course of love. It is true that the course of true love does not run smoothly and this strikes at the heart chords of all who reads it.
The story begins with Bridget's New Year resolutions to lose weight, quit smoking, drink less and most importantly she decided not to date alcoholics, perverts, commitment phobics and etc. This is classic example of one woman's problems on which she encounters sooner or later in life, but ones which get much tougher to handle when a woman is older. Women are expected to look young and beautiful, all the time and no matter what. For example, Bridget was badly dressed most of the time and she did not take care of her looks as she should have and as such she was not attractive to men. She had a bad habit of smoking and drinking which was not quite desirable by society. Women like Bridget who are single at the age of 30 are called spinsters and they are being constantly reminded that the time flies away and that they are still alone. Her parents played important figures in her life. Her mother simply wanted to marry her off to a good and a rich man, as many other mothers did because at the time that was one of the most important things for a woman to do in the British society. When a woman does not find anyone for a relationship she is considered to be a failure because she is not fulfilling her duties as a woman. Single women are shamed and judged publicly by society, as apparently it turns out that being single is very sad, depressing and lonely, which in some cases is partly true. However on the other side, the fun side of being single, Bridget like many other gained something from that; she was able to date, she maintained close friendship and she had more time for herself.
