Women characters all have a part of his wife.

[Barid Bel Medar]

In case any of you didn't know, RJ has said this many times.

 

INTERVIEW: Oct 19th, 1994

Compuserve Chat (Verbatim)

 

MYKAEL

Are any of your characters based on anyone you know?

 

ROBERT JORDAN

All of the women are based on my wife.

 

Now obviously they aren't all very similar to his wife. For example, since Harriet seems like a lovely woman, I doubt that Semirhage or Elaida bare too much resemblance to her. Just that each of the female characters have a piece of his wife in them.

 

Reading Theoryland's Matt Hatch's interview with Harriet made me think of this. When she talks about her life, I came across one part that made me think of this topic.

 

Not really. I knew I didn't want to be a teacher, and that seemed to be the only other possibility.

 

Which of course, led me to think of Mesaana.

 

Not sure if this is creepy or what not, if so, delete, but I thought it may be interesting to have a look at.

 

What parts of RJ's wife do you think are present in the characters? Like Semirhage or Lanfear for example?

[TristanWebb]

I always thought that the cat/dog female/male thing had to come from some pet arguments.

[Mr Ares]

According to the man himself: "As I've often said, each of my major female characters has at least one element drawn from Harriet. And I won't tell her which parts of which characters came from her. That despite the fact that, as she likes to point out, she knows where I sleep. She did figure out that she is Semirhage when the garbage doesn't get to the curb on time, though."

[Seeker]

^ Making us wait till Jan '13 for AMOL has a touch of Semirhage in it too

[Terez]

According to the man himself: "As I've often said, each of my major female characters has at least one element drawn from Harriet. And I won't tell her which parts of which characters came from her. That despite the fact that, as she likes to point out, she knows where I sleep. She did figure out that she is Semirhage when the garbage doesn't get to the curb on time, though."

 

When Harriet tells that story (about the garbage) it's usually Moghedien.

 

The interview made me think of Ilyena:

 

I hope you enjoy conversation, for she surely does. Be forewarned.