The transformation(?) of gender perception from the 19th century to today: Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones' Diary

The purpose of this study is to analyse and compare gender perception in two different time periods in history. Within the scope of this study two novels are chosen, namely Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones' Diary which was written approximately two hundred years later. The novel called Bridget Jones's Diary is known as the rewriting of the classic novel, Pride and Preudice. Rewriting is an important technique for woman writers, who prefer to give voice to the female characters whose voices are not heard in classical literature. This comparative analysis which revolves around the condition of women in the time periods the novels were written and gender discriminations and unequalities that can be observed within the plotlines, will help find an answer to the question of whether there has been a meaningful improvement in the gender perception. As the method of this study, document analysis is made use of as one of the qualitative research methods. As a result of this analysis, it is observed that there has been no radical transformations in terms of womens's social position and gender role stereotypes.