The most memorable of the Aunts is Aunt Lydia. Her nagging words seem to haunt our narrator, Offred, in all her day-to-day chores, “ and many of the memories she holds of the past. However the Aunts also hold great respect for the Handmaids, “On first days we are permitted front doors, but after that we are supposed to use the back…After a while it will be either all front doors or all back.
Aunt Lydia said she was lobbying for the front. Yours is a position of honour, she said.”
Aunt Lydia’s words also offer some comfort in desperate times, as she perceptively points out, “Ordinary, said Aunt Lydia, is what you are used to. This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary.” In this sense, she can be perceived as a motherly figure, to whom the Handmaids could turn to. However, there is a lack of intimacy usually associated with mother/daughter relationship, the Aunts and the Handmaids have more of a teacher/pupil relationship. The Aunt’s lessons are obviously conducted and well calculated, due to the fact Offred seems to have memorized many of Aunt Lydia’s phrases, “Not all of you will make it through. Some of you will fall on dry grounds or thorns. Some of you are shallow-rooted.” These poignant words emphasise the pressure enforced onto the Handmaids to conceive and succeed by quietly conforming to the dictatorial regime.
However there is also a more sinister and intolerant side to the Aunt’s characters, and their authority is accentuated by the, “…electric cattle prods slung on thongs from their leather belts.” However their status does not permit them to be, “trusted with guns” as the male guards are. This emphasises the fact that although women rule over women, the dominating power is still held by the men, and there is a limit on the amount of power a woman is permitted. The Aunts also had the ability to unite the Handmaids against a single person e.g. Janine, empowering them to mindlessly justify their actions. Testifying sessions were held at the Red Centre, to make examples of people, highlighting the corruption the ‘old’ society gave way to. “Who led them on? Aunt Helena beams, pleased with us.
She did. She did. She did.”
Our narrator, Offred, seems to have a complex relationship with the Aunts. To a certain extent they somehow justify the policies of the regime, “We were a society dying, said Aunt Lydia, of too much choice.” The also seem to be able to create a purpose and sense of reason to the new way of life due to the fact, “The Republic of Gilead, said Aunt Lydia, knows no bounds. Gilead is within you.” These poignant words could almost persuade the Handmaids to accept the regime and become true believers. The Aunts are masters at conjuring emotion within themselves and the Handmaids, “Modesty is invisibility, said Aunt Lydia. Never forget it. To be seen - to be seen - is to be-her voice trembled - penetrated.” However, Offred also feels resentment and sheer hatred towards them due to the enforcement they inflicted onto her friend Moira-a feminist against Gilead, “They took her into a room that used to be the Science Lab. It was a room none of us ever went willingly. Afterwards she could not walk for a week, her feet would not fit into her shoes, they were too swollen…they looked like lungs.” However, whatever our narrator feels towards them, it is obvious she cannot forget their chilling messages of conspiracy.
Due to the slight mystery behind the Aunts themselves, regarding their backgrounds and true attitudes towards the regime, we are left feeling rather unsatisfied by their characters. Due to the style of Atwood’s writing, which really involves the reader into the emotional turmoil of the narrator, one takes on a similar attitude as Offred-an arrange of mixed feelings. However, these generally tend to lean towards the loathing of the Aunts at their patronizing and rather annoying remarks. After all they are the enforcers of the regime who appear to hold little sympathy towards their fellow females.
