On an unhappy day, nothing was worthwhile to Edna. On these days Edna refused to work at all; she lacked the will to create when nothing seemed worth creating. Even life became "grotesque." (pg 58) Grotesque means "incongruous distortion" which translates by parts to "inconsistent/inappropriate change for the worse". As part of this distortion, she viewed humanity as being hopeless, no better off than worms. With these kinds of thoughts floating around in her head, is it really a surprise that Edan commits suicide? If she viewed things as hopeless before she was outrightly denied Robert, wouldn't that make her a high risk for suicide anyway? Perhaps the occurrence with Robert merely pushed her over the edge, as if her only hope lay in getting to be with Robert. This explains the question of why not getting Robert one night mattered so much to Edna when she had planned on dropping him after that night for her children's sake. If she viewed her only hope in life as getting to be with Robert, then this meant her hope was lost when Robert left.