He is no better than Stanley in his poor estimation of women, thinking positively of the woman only as long as she satisfies his fantasy of her. .
While Stanley presents the stronger trait of male aggression through violent language and acts, young Tom diminishes her validity as an independent being by objectifying her sexually, dreaming, "she [has] been tender with him" (540). The young worker imagines how they snuggle together at night and "he [can] feel the bond between the woman and himself" (542) that exists only in his objectified version of her as a sex object not a real person. Before the hot "spell" breaks for him, the young man finally carries through on his fantasy and makes an approach to the woman. He climbs over to the woman's roof, dreaming she will respond to him with tenderness, but instead she rejects and ignores him. Again the weather parallels the male libido, and as his ardor cools, so does the weather, which cools down the next day. Lessing's message is that Tom only has positive feelings towards the woman on his own terms as he objectifies her in his estimation of her as a sex object satisfying his fantasy. Consequently, she is safe from his anger only in his false, fantasized version of her as a compliant lover and her rejection exposes his real aggression toward her. .
In the story, women are objectified as one would think of weather, as an object and not a person, and the men treat the woman with equal contempt each in his own way. Because of their preconceived notions of a woman's role as submissive yet chaste, the woman's lack of interest is as contemptuous to the men as a bad day of weather. Tom especially equates the weather with her lack of interest in him. Consequently, he thinks of the wet gray day and the woman simultaneously as two twin objects and not of the woman as a person. When Tom is rejected by the woman, "that's fixed you good and proper" (545) he thinks and withdraws from his fantasy.
