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Aunt Helena
Aunt Elizabeth is one of the Founders, and she was arrested and coerced into developing Gilead at the same time as Aunt Lydia. Aunt Elizabeth is not as powerful or assertive as either Aunt Vidala or Lydia, but she demonstrates more agency than Aunt Helena does. Although Elizabeth often supports Vidala, when Lydia fraudulently convinces Elizabeth that Vidala is scheming to have Elizabeth publicly denounced and removed from power, Elizabeth allies herself with Lydia for her own protection. As a result, Lydia convinces Aunt Elizabeth to falsely accuse Dr. Grove of raping her, so that he will be shamed, executed, and brought to justice for his sexual abuse of numerous young girls. Although doing this earns Elizabeth Aunt Lydia’s favor, it also binds Elizabeth to her entirely, since Lydia now has knowledge and evidence of Elizabeth making a false accusation that she could leverage if she so chose. When Vidala is comatose and Lydia knows that Vidala has uncovered Lydia’s plot against Gilead, Lydia coerces Elizabeth into murdering Vidala in her sleep, smothering her with a pillow.
Aunt Elizabeth Quotes in The Testaments
The The Testaments quotes below are all either spoken by Aunt Elizabeth or refer to Aunt Elizabeth. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 48
Quotes
“She wanted to live on her own and work on a farm. Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Vidala said this is what came of reading too early: she’d picked up the wrong ideas at the Hildegard Library, before her mind had been strengthened enough to reject them, and there were a lot o f questionable books that should be destroyed.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Aunt Elizabeth Quotes in The Testaments
The The Testaments quotes below are all either spoken by Aunt Elizabeth or refer to Aunt Elizabeth. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 48
Quotes
“She wanted to live on her own and work on a farm. Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Vidala said this is what came of reading too early: she’d picked up the wrong ideas at the Hildegard Library, before her mind had been strengthened enough to reject them, and there were a lot o f questionable books that should be destroyed.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
