Aunt Helena is one of the Founders, and she was arrested and coerced into developing Gilead at the same time as Aunt Lydia. Although Aunt Helena holds power as a Founder and appears often in the narrative, she is weak-willed and exists entirely in the shadow of the other leading Aunts. Even when she does not agree with Lydia or Vidala’s machinations, she follows along with them, feeling as if she has no choice but to bend to their power. Because of this, Helena has very little character of her own, but mainly echoes the opinions of others.