  The roles played by mesons in the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon
are explored using as a basis a model containing vector mesons with coupling to
the continuum together with the asymptotic $Q^2$ behavior of perturbative QCD.
Specifically, the vector dominance model (GKex) developed by Lomon is employed,
as it is known to be very successful in representing the existing high-quality
data published to date. An analysis is made of the experimental uncertainties
present when the differences between the GKex model and the data are expanded
in orthonormal basis functions. A main motivation for the present study is to
provide insight into how the various ingredients in this model yield the
measured behavior, including discussions of when dipole form factors are to be
expected or not, of which mesons are the major contributors, for instance, at
low-$Q^2$ or large distances, and of what effects are predicted from coupling
to the continuum. Such insights are first discussed in momentum space, followed
by an analysis of how different and potentially useful information emerges when
both the experimental and theoretical electric form factors are Fourier
transformed to coordinate space. While these Fourier transforms should not be
interpreted as "charge distributions", nevertheless the roles played by the
various mesons, especially which are dominant at large or small distance
scales, can be explored via such experiment--theory comparisons.
