Edna as a Mother

From the very beginning, the reader gains an idea about Edna. She does not appear to want her current life, or her children. When she expresses that she would give her life for her children but not herself, she is saying that she would willingly give over her physical self, but she would not sacrifice her wants and needs as a woman. She would not put her desires on hold for the needs of her children, and she would run away from being a mother, if it is what she truly wanted. 

                Edna does not want to be a mother, it is obvious to the reader that she had her children for the “society” she lives in. If she had decided to not have children, she and her husband would have been considered to be infertile.  This status in society is a problem, it is thought to demonstrate that there is a problem with you. That as a woman, if you do not have children, then what else do you have to live for? Edna found other things to live for, other than her children.