Aunt Lydia is one of the ruling females in the Gilead regime. She is a woman employed to rule women, Gilead are using the tactic of ruling by splitting the opposition. According to Dr Peixoto: 'No empire imposed by force or otherwise has ever been without this feature: control of the indigenous by members of their own group'. Aunt Lydia is used by Atwood to show the flaws in Gilead, since she is shown through Offred as a vicious, narcissistic woman, Aunt Lydia is the epitomy of vindictiveness because she manipulates people and disguising her evil nature under a kind and Christian exterior and yet she is one of the most devout followers of Gilead. Atwood uses Aunt Lydia as a human to represent all that is wrong with the Gilead regime...