Madame de Rênal Timeline and Summary

•  Back
• More 

• Madame meets Julien Sorel, her children's new tutor. She is immediately attracted to him, but is miles away from ever acting on it.
• As Madame and Julien spend more time together, Madame fears that a handsome young man like Julien will soon get a girlfriend. To her delight, he turns down any girl who shows interest.
• One evening, Julien takes Madame's hand. She pulls hers away, though, finding the gesture inappropriate. When he tries a second time though, she doesn't pull away.
• Julien sneaks into Madame's room in the middle of the night. She scolds him at first, but his wooing eventually gets him into bed with her. They continue this sexual affair for a while.
• One of the servants who has a crush on Julien gets suspicious (and jealous). She spreads word about Julien's and Madame's relationship.
• Madame denies it to her husband and succeeds in convincing him that it's all a lie to ruin her reputation. She recommends that Julien get sent away to seminary school so that the scandal will go away.
• After Julien leaves seminary school, he sneaks back into the de Rênal house one last time to have sex with Madame.
• Later in the book, Madame finds out about Julien's engagement to Mathilde de La Mole. She writes a letter to the Marquis de La Mole talking about her affair with Julien and saying he's a scoundrel.
• Julien returns to Madame's town and shoots her while she's in church. She survives the attack and realizes she still loves Julien. She forgives him and tries to plead his case with the judge, but it's no use. Julien gets executed.
• Three days after Julien's death, Madame de Rênal drops dead while hugging her children.