The petite binge drinker
Three bottles of whiskey is enough to kill a grown man, but Judy's been practicing. She knows how to handle her liquor, that's for sure, but just like every other human, she makes serious mistakes in her drunken states. She often drinks to excess, meaning that in addition to her loneliness, she is further isolating herself with poor behavior that others won't condone. She wakes up in her own sickness to a house of people who hate her for being so unbearable when she's drunk.
The permanent virgin
Judy is a woman who has never been married and has never conceived a child. Perhaps she is not literally a virgin, but the image is clear enough. She is the harsh reality that romantic women fear most, the unloved, undiscovered woman who doesn't get to bring children into the world.
The tyrant son
The Oedipal relationship between Bernie and his mother makes him into the king of the castle, so to speak, as if he were married to her. She spoils him for the same reasons that Judy drinks: loneliness, confusion, and bitterness.
The terrible hostess
Mrs. Rice is a hostess by trade in a community that cherishes hospitality, but she skimps on meals and over feeds her son in front of starving, struggling countrymen.
The abusive minister
This is only ironic to people who haven't been part of a church for very long before. The problem with ministry is raised by Judy's Catholicism. One would think that churches are full of little Jesus's who just give money to the poor and offer community to people who are lonely and difficult enough. But Judy learns from Father Quigley that many if not most churchy people are secretly more like the Pharisees than they are like Jesus.
