On my separate rooms headcanon

[anghraine]

So, one of the reasons I started headcanoning Darcy and Elizabeth as having separate rooms is sheer malevolence grumpiness at Austen fanon in general. That one is pretty inoffensive in itself, but treated as sort of ... obligatory? And I don't care for obligatory.

But passive-aggression is not the only reason I went for it!

The other one is that I really, really like Congreve's Way of the World, and I particularly love the heroine Millamant. There's a scene where she and her secret lover Mirabell, a Reformed Rake(TM), negotiate a series of demands they'll require from each other in marriage. Millamant wants:

- to keep sleeping in late
- no pet names or nicknames
- no PDA
- to visit whoever she wants
- to write and receive letters without being questioned about them
- to wear whatever she wants
- to choose what conversations she participates in
- to have dinner in her own room on bad days
- to have her own room
- to manage her tea table on her own, which he should stay away from unless he asks permission
- a knock at the door before he comes in to any room she happens to occupy

And Mirabell has his own demands (no heavy drinking, no corsets during pregnancy etc), but he agrees to hers. It's a comedic scene, but also rather sweet:


MILLA. Fainall, what shall I do? Shall I have him? I think I must have him.

MRS. FAIN. Ay, ay, take him, take him, what should you do?

MILLA. Well then—I’ll take my death, I’m in a horrid fright—Fainall, I shall never say it. Well—I think—I’ll endure you.

MRS. FAIN. Fie, fie, have him, and tell him so in plain terms: for I am sure you have a mind to him.

MILLA. Are you? I think I have; and the horrid man looks as if he thought so too. Well, you ridiculous thing you, I’ll have you. I won’t be kissed, nor I won’t be thanked.—Here, kiss my hand though.


IDK, it's very charming to me. It was written near a century before P&P was, but Millamant is often considered a sort of predecessor to Elizabeth, and it's not like the issues at hand went anywhere. And after that, it struck me that—well, I'd find it charming for Elizabeth and Darcy, too. Their dynamic wouldn't be near as screwball, of course, but Pemberley is such a stand-in for Darcy himself that I really like the idea of Elizabeth having a place within it that's completely her own. And I really like the idea of Darcy understanding and respecting that.

So, in the end, I came around to thinking separate rooms would actually be very romantic in its own way—just a different sort of romantic.

Comments

[felinejumper]

Way of the world sounds very nice and omg, relationship negotiations? My *dream*. And it...is a good headcanon, and one I am so pleased to accept forever.

Also, hi! A general statement that I *love* all of the Austen meta you bring to my life on a semi-regular basis, although I think this is the first time I'm saying so (still...getting over...Tumblr consumption mode...).

[anghraine]

This is late, but thank you very much, on the particular and the general! :)