The old man represents a tale in literature while the spider women represents a fable. The key difference between a tale and a fable are:
A tale ends unclear with no real moral or purpose to the story and leaves you asking questions.
A fable ends quite clearly. You do not have any questions because the fable answered them all through out the story.
Fables are more preferable to society, that is why in the story everyone likes the spider women better than the old man. The old man does not tell us anything about himself and the people do not like that. They assume many different types of things about the old man and leave it at that.
The spider women also represent a simpler work of fiction while the old man represents a complex one such as the work of fiction he is apart of.