Posted by Peter Ceresole on July 31, 2012 at 09:29:58 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Origin of Dorothea posted by Magnus Smith on July 30, 2012 at 11:39:45:
Did we already discuss the origin of, or inspiration for, Dorothea? Was her wonderful imagination a character trait that might be considered overused, seeing as we already had Titty with the same?
I think maybe AR wanted the pairing of Dick and Dot as the two sides of himself. Also he was probably looking for something beyond his relationship with the Altounyans; when did that start to run less smoothly? Although in WH, there is a logical and touching alliance between Titty and Dot which made a good connection with the early stories, which he would have found useful, good for repeat sales and would please Cape.
But AR had a fair bit of the professorial knowledge about him, and Dick was clearly a character that he found congenial to write. With Dot as the creative counterweight. PM is the classic working out of that relationship.
The similarity with Tabitha is interesting, but would he have wanted to be reminded of her as he wrote? It would seem to have caused him a lot of pain. In spite of his happy relationship with Evgenia and with boats, it seems to me that between his disastrous marriage and his dyspepsia he had a lot to cope with.