Shakespeare References in Bridget Jones's Diary

Helen Fielding's novel Bridget Jones's Diary contains a few Shakespeare references. The first is a mention of Shakespeare himself: "All it means in this day and age is that a whole generation of people only get to know the great works of literature - Austen, Eliot, Dickens, Shakespeare, and so on - through the television" (p. 86). That's followed by a reference to Othello: "Bridget is one of these people who thinks the moment when the screen goes back on Blind Date is on par with Othello's 'hurl my soul from heaven' soliloquy" (p. 87). There is also a character named Desdemona. The book also mentions A Midsummer Night's Dream: "their expressions of angst merely brief and fleeting which say, 'Ought we to be at an outdoor performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream?'" (p. 129). And there is a reference to Hamlet: "Arthur Smith's Hamlet is completely booked up so we could go to the Coen brothers instead at five" (p. 173).

Bridget Jones's Diary was published in 1996. It was first published in the United States in 1998. The copy I read is from 2001.