It isn’t hard to see how Edna’s feelings for her children might not have been the most sincere. In the 19th century, women were taught from a young age that eventually they would one day marry and have children, that it would be their greatest joy and their sole purpose in life. Whenever we see Edna being affectionate with her children, it’s usually in the presence of someone else—Robert, Madame Ratignolle, Leonce, the nurse; to me, it’s almost as if she is trying to prove to others, as well as herself, that she is a good and loving mother, that she doesn’t lack the loving and nurturing qualities thought to be inherent in a woman. Surely there is some true motherly affection there, but it is likely that the majority of it is more out of obligation—she had two children; now she must look after them and love them the way she’s always been told a mother must.
As the story progresses and Edna’s desire for independence grows, her relationship with her sons becomes even more distant; she spends many days by herself painting and eventually moves into her own little house. When she does interact with her children—posing for her pictures; Edna going to visit them in Iberville—it is fleetingly and on her own terms. She is drifting further and further away; though her love for them is always there, she continues to avoid more and more of her motherly duties and obligations until, at last, she chooses to end her life.
In a way, Edna ends up being right when she tells Madame Ratignolle, “I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself.” She ends up committing suicide because she knows now that everything will be different; she’s come to realize who she is and what she wants—to be free, unattached, fully independent—and knows that she cannot be that and be a mother at the same time; she won’t sacrifice who she truly is for her children. And so she ends up giving her life for them, perhaps because she believes that having no mother is better than having one who will never fully cherish them and love them in the way that they deserve.