10 Biggest Pride & Prejudice Easter Eggs & References In The Bridget Jones Movies

Bridget Jones is so firmly set in the 2000s that without its Easter eggs, it may be easy to forget that it is an adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen wrote about female characters dealing with the issues that affected society at the time, and Pride and Prejudice is about Lizzie, who is fighting the pressure to marry whether she likes her suitor or not. While some parts of Bridget Jones are now considered dated, the movies did the same thing by addressing body confidence, sexism, and, like Lizzie, the pressure to settle down with a man.

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Bridget Jones is one of Renée Zellweger’s best movies, and she brings the same likability to Bridget that Austen did to Lizzie. Bridget deals with her problems by writing them down, which gives audiences a better insight into her. The choice to tell the story through the eyes of its modern heroine made Bridget Jones one of the best Jane Austin movie adaptations made, as it is so distinctly different from the source material. However, the Bridget Jones movies include several Easter eggs directly referencing Pride and Prejudice, and some are more subtle than others.

10 Mr. Darcy

The Most Obvious Pride And Prejudice Easter Egg In Bridget Jones

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Bridget Jones’s reluctant love interest is Mark Darcy, played by Colin Firth. In Pride and Prejudice, Lizzie’s love interest is Mr. Darcy. Unlike many modern adaptations of classic novels which change their central characters’ names, Bridget Jones keeps this one name. This is an interesting choice, and the most obvious Easter egg in the Bridget Jones movies. While Bridget usually calls Mark Darcy by his first name, when she interviews him professionally in Bridget Jones’s Diary, she calls him “Mr. Darcy.”

The decision to cast Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy resulted in an interesting problem. In The Edge of Reason novel, Bridget has to interview Colin Firth, who was playing Mr Darcy in the 1995 TV series adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. The Bridget Jones movie changed the book scene, as it couldn’t be filmed for the movie without casting a different actor to play Colin Firth. The interview scene was filmed for a DVD feature with Zellweger playing Bridget and Firth playing himself.

9 Mark’s Original Comment Was Overheard

The Scene Plays Out Very Similarly To Pride And Prejudice

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In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy insults Lizzie while at a ball. When another character asks him what he thinks of Lizzie, he responds “she is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me.” He also draws attention to the fact that she is single, assuming that she has been “slighted by other men.” This insult is the beginning of their antagonistic relationship, and a scene in Bridget Jones’s Diary plays out similarly.

Mark describes Bridget as a “verbally incontinent spinster,” and then notices that she has overheard everything. While the scenes are very similar, the characters react differently. Lizzie is furious, and this scene forms the beginning of the mutual dislike between her and Mr Darcy. Bridget is mortified, and this scene is the catalyst for Bridget starting the diary that is central to the movie, intent on changing her life by finding a “nice, sensible man.”

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8 Bridget Works At Pemberley Press

This Name is Significant In Pride And Prejudice

At the beginning of Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bridget works at a publishing house called Pemberley Press, where she has an inappropriate crush on her boss, Daniel Cleaver. Bridget is overlooked professionally, repeatedly called the wrong name, and is patronized by other members of staff. The name of her workplace is a callback to an important location in Pride and Prejudice, but it also reflects a key aspect of the novel’s plot.

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As the release of “Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy” approaches, fans are remembering the events of the first several movies in the franchise.

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Mr Darcy’s country estate is called Pemberley. Many of the most significant events in Pride and Prejudice happen here, like Lizzie meeting Mr Darcy in his own home and hearing his housekeeper give a glowing description of him. That said, Pemberley represents aspirations in both Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones. Lizzie’s mother wants her to live there with a rich man, while in one of the best scenes in Bridget Jones, Bridget is offered a new job and leaves Pemberley for better things, insulting Daniel in the process.

7 A Character Runs Away In Both Bridget Jones And Pride And Prejudice

It Is Not The Character That Viewers Might Expect

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Both Bridget Jones’s Diary and Pride and Prejudice feature a selfish side character who eventually runs away. This is Lizzie’s younger sister Lydia in Pride and Prejudice, and this is a catastrophic event in the novel. At the time, running away with a man before being married to him could ruin the reputation of an entire family, and with both Lizzie and her older sister Jane still unmarried, this could ruin their social standing too.

This situation is updated in Bridget Jones’s Diary, with Bridget’s mother Pamela being the runaway but returning home after she realizes what a mistake she has made. While the effects are drastically different, with little harm done in Pamela’s case, there are significant parallels between the characters that may not be noticed. Both Lydia and Pamela are reckless, selfish, and easily bribed by gifts. Neither apologize for the hurt that they have caused.

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6 There Is A Familiar Actor In Bridget Jones’s Diary

A Pride And Prejudice Actor Appears At Pemberley Press

When Bridget arrives at the humiliating book launch party, she embarrasses herself in front of world-renowned authors and colleagues. One of these colleagues with a non-speaking role is Crispin Bonham-Carter (distantly related to the actress Helena Bonham Carter.) He is seen briefly talking to the author Salman Rushdie, and later holding a large billboard in the office. Bonham-Carter had a main role in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice TV series, where he was much more talkative.

Bonham-Carter played Mr Bingley in Pride and Prejudice and was the main (and only) love interest for Lizzie’s classically beautiful sister Jane. In Pride and Prejudice, Crispin Bonham-Carter spent a lot of time onscreen with Colin Firth as the two men played best friends, but they did not get a scene together at all in Bridget Jones. Mr. Bingley’s first name is Charles, and while this could have been used as an extra Easter egg in Bridget Jones, Bonham-Carter’s character is listed as Greg.

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5 Mr Darcy Had Some Personal History With The Villain

The Outcome Was Swapped In Bridget Jones

The villains in both Bridget Jones and Pride and Prejudice are involved in hidden scandals that fit their time periods and are only revealed later. Daniel Cleaver is one of Hugh Grant’s best villain performances and the sleazy antagonist throughout the Bridget Jones franchise. He is the equivalent of Pride and Prejudice‘s romance conman and soldier, Mr Wickham. In each situation, Mr Darcy has a bitter personal history with the antagonist, which is central to his character.

In Pride and Prejudice, Mr Darcy nearly loses his little sister, Georgiana, to Mr. Wickham, who tried to seduce and elope with her. His plan was for Mr. Darcy to pay him off in an effort to avoid a scandal. Back then, Mr Darcy was responsible for Georgiana and intervened before they eloped. On the other hand, Daniel Cleaver had an affair with Mark Darcy’s wife, which led to their divorce. Brawling might not be accepted in either time period, but Mark Darcy did get to punch Daniel: a fate that Mr Wickham unfortunately avoided.

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4 Bridget Jones Uses Pride And Prejudice’s Most Famous Line

The Context Is Different In Bridget Jones’s Diary

Pride and Prejudice starts with the memorable quote, “it is a truth universally acknowledged that any man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife.” As the novel is a social satire, this line is making fun of the fact that women in Jane Austen’s time would relentlessly pursue rich men. While wealth had never stopped being a desirable trait in general, women like Bridget could make their own income, and so the line was changed to reflect another social truth.

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Bridget says “it is a truth universally acknowledged that the moment one area of your life starts going okay, another part of it falls spectacularly to pieces.” Many of Bridget Jones‘s funniest moments are the scenes in which she is most relatable, and this line is likely to resonate with every viewer. While Bridget Jones has the same main themes and central plot as Pride and Prejudice, this is a perfect example of a Pride and Prejudice Easter egg that has been updated for a modern audience.

3 Both Mr Darcy Characters Confess Their Feelings Under Similar Circumstances

Both Scenes Involve A Smug Married Couple

The central romance story in both Bridget Jones and Pride and Prejudice is the same, with two people who don’t like each other falling for each other. Both the novel and the adaptation contain scenes that are unique to them, but some of Bridget Jones‘s key scenes relate back to their equivalent in Pride and Prejudice. One of these scenes is the one in which Mr Darcy finally confesses his feelings.

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In Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary, both Lizzie and Bridget visit smug married couples, though only Bridget refers to them in that way. The couples patronize each woman for being alone while representing their marriages as less than ideal. Shortly afterward, Mr Darcy visits Lizzie and proposes to her, while Mark Darcy is more reserved, simply telling Bridget that he likes her just as she is. This may not be the most romantic scene in the Bridget Jones movies, but it is a pivotal moment.

2 Mr Darcy Saves A Reputation

The Edge Of Reason Features Another Pride And Prejudice Parallel

While Bridget Jones’s Diary is the main adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, one plot that is paralleled in The Edge of Reason is Bridget’s prison storyline. Bridget was falsely imprisoned for carrying drugs that were planted on her, which is an extremely modern scandal that could not have taken place in Jane Austen’s era. However, Mark Darcy’s actions mirror Pride and Prejudice‘s Mr Darcy almost exactly, and both quietly save a reputation.

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When Lydia runs away with Mr Wickham, Mr Darcy quietly tracks them down and pays Wickham’s gambling debts to persuade him to marry Lydia, avoiding a scandal that would ruin her family’s reputation. In The Edge of Reason, Mark Darcy uses his skills as a human rights barrister to fight for Bridget’s innocence, while personally tracking down the drug trafficker who planted the drugs in the first place. This allows Bridget to come home as a human rights celebrity, instead of ending her career.

1 Mark Darcy’s Middle Name

When Bridget Marries Mark In Bridget Jones’s Baby, His Full Name Is Revealed

Though Lizzie and Mr Darcy get married at the end of Pride and Prejudice, Bridget Jones’s goal of getting married takes a longer time to happen. After Bridget Jones’s Diary ends with Bridget and Mark finally kissing, the two split up and later reconcile in The Edge of Reason. However, Bridget Jones’s Baby begins with Bridget single, and she and Mark rediscovering their love for each other. When the two marry at the end of the movie, one more Pride and Prejudice Easter egg is revealed.

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Related Without Darcy, I’m Actually Relieved Daniel Cleaver Has A Small Role In Bridget Jones 4

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy will bring Daniel Cleaver back but in a smaller role, which is a huge relief now that Darcy won’t be around anymore.

When Bridget and Mark exchange their vows, this is the first time that the viewers learn their full names. While Bridget is the simple Bridget Rose Jones, Mark’s full name is Mark Fitzwilliam Darcy, Q.C. This is a reference to the Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, whose first name is Fitzwilliam. As the Bridget Jones series has updated many elements of the original novel, this final Easter egg is a fun reference to the much older source material and a great tribute to the original Mr Darcy.

Bridget Jones

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