A picture of Oates and husband Raymond J. Smith, taken a couple of years after their marriage in 1961. At their Ontario home. Oates is thin and very dainty, dressed very much like the outfits and image Ariah portrays in the novel. Interestingly, her husband beside her rather resembles Gilbert Erskine. Ariah's late husband in The Falls had glasses, pale skin, and dressed very proper and intelligenty, almost in a geeky way.