Similarly "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" uses tigers as a symbol to associate a woman's life in the early 50's. "Our Friend Judith" a remarkable story, contains a wealth of a characterization. Characterization is also brought out to its fullest in "A Doll's House". The whole plot in "Our Friend Judith" is centered on the characterization of Judith and the other characters, where as Ibsenis drama holds its characterization within. Rich tries to bring forth in her character the essence of how she might have felt as a women living in a male's society. .
A fictional story of a women name Judith who is living in a male dominated society is brought forth in "Our Friend Judith". Judith to her friends was an English spinster. This is due to the fact that she is "fortyish, unmarried, and living alone"(Our Friend Judith). But this label is a complete misinterpretation of the story's lead character. Judith is shown as a personality, whether deliberate or not, who gives her friends plenty to gossip about. A women who lets young American strangers occupy and destroy her flat; who retains and displays her old lovers literary works; a character who becomes a "mistress" and has an affair with a married man; and gallivants around the Italian Riviera. Gayle Greene defines Lessing's story by stating, "Dorris Lessing's fiction is visionary and reversionary in getting us to see that our reality is not the whole of reality and to imagine an elsewhere (Gayle Greene page #20). The whole idea of the story revolves around 3 characters. The 3 main characters comprise of Judith, Betty and a third character that is telling the story. The whole plot is one long gossip session between Betty and the narrator about what and why Judith is doing. Without this rich characterization of Judith, the story would basically be lacking a plot.
The story goes on until Judith meets Luigi who is an Italian barber. Living in Italy has a psychological effect on her.