Edna is a sad character made out to be a hero because of her circumstances. Let me explain.
From the beginning, Edna is presented as a woman bored with the mundanity and her position in her own life. When we first meet her, we hear her (or perhaps the narrator) introducing the reader to how ordinary her days are at the beach with her family during the summer. It’s the same people every time with the only change being the weather, really. Her husband goes out every night to gamble and carry on while she stays at home and minds the children while they sleep. She’s expected to be a proper woman and live her life under her husband’s thumb.
It’s very close to the beginning of the book when Edna goes through her “awaktening” and she begins to realize that she isn’t happy in her life. She married a man simply because her parents said no and had kids to please her husband back when she cared about what he thought. Once she realizes this, she frees herself and does as she pleases. But does this make her truly happy?
Yes, Edna goes through periods of intense joy when she thinks everything in the world is properly aligned and that she could fight the world. However, she also has days of equally intense sadness where she can’t bring herself to do anything. While this could just be a sign of mental illness (which is true), it also shows how tragic she truly is. She’s doing all the things she loves without restraint, and that should be a true sign that she’s living her best life. However, we can see that she’s not truly happy with anything that she does and that she’s going through the motions of being happy until she can’t anymore. Which ultimately ends in her suicide.
Many people read said suicide as a way of release for her, which is true in a way. She doesn’t have to live under the constant stress she was under while living with her husband and children or the memory of her love that would never be. But therein lies her tragedy. She has almost everything she’s ever wanted and it still feels like she’s living in a cage and the only way to free herself is through ending her life. That is the real tragedy of Edna. She’s trapped in her own head.