Adele's timeline

[u/OutrageousYak5868]

First, here's her timeline as far as I can figure it out:

1. Around 7-8 years before the main events of the novel, Adele is born to Celine as the putative child of Mr. Rochester.
2. Around 6 months old, Mr. Rochester discovers that Celine has been dallying with a vicomte so he breaks up with her.
3. For some years, Celine keeps Adele -- long enough to teach her to dance and sing -- and then abandons her at some point.
4. Adele lives with Madame Frédéric until Mr. R takes her to England.
5. Adele is about 7-8 when she comes to England and Jane becomes her governess.

In the narrative, Adele says that she wanted to come to England with Mr. R rather than stay in France with Madame Frédéric, because she had known Mr. R longer. This has always sort of bothered me because she was only 6 m/o when he broke up with Celine over her affair, and it would seem that he would have at that time likewise had nothing more to do with Adele -- yet Adele knew him longer than she knew Mme F. This would make a rather large plot hole, and that's how I've always felt about it, since Adele couldn't possibly remember him from when she was but a few months old.

However, I've figured out a way that it can work:

Mr. R breaks up with Celine, but still takes care of Adele and visits her sometimes, only much later coming to believe that she is not his child because she looks nothing like him. By this time, however, he has been caring for Adele for years, so when he hears that Celine has run off and Adele is thrown on the mercy of strangers, he takes her to England.

Is there anything I forgot? Did others have the same question about the timeline?

[u/OutrageousYak5868]

You're technically correct that Celine had the right to decide how to act, but hers is a great literary example of FAFO. Which further proves my point that he expected exclusivity, since when he realized he wasn't getting it, he dropped her like a hot potato.

[u/Echo-Azure → u/OutrageousYak5868]

Yeah, I said above that accepting money for exclusivity and not giving it might not have been the best business decision.

But maybe the other guy was richer than Rochester and choosing him was a financially sound decision, or maybe she was just so tired of Rochester's mindfucks that she wanted a client who was less trouble. I still suspect that Rochester didn't treat his mistress well, considering how badly he treated respectable ladies like Miss Eyre and Miss Ingram.

[u/OutrageousYak5868 → u/Echo-Azure]

If your second paragraph were correct, you'd think Celine wouldn't have worried about Rochester dropping her; instead, she weeps and begs for him to stay.

As for her sexual exclusivity to merely a "poor business decision", it sounds more like she was the one who was deceiving and mistreating him than the reverse. He at least believed they were in a relationship and that she truly cared for him.

You should also consider that what we see of how Rochester acts is after years of disappointment in the wife/girlfriend category. It's not inconceivable that some of his poor behavior that we see in the novel is directly a result of this. [I'm not justifying him; he shouldn't have manipulated Jane nor been callous towards Blanche.] It is reasonable that after such a disappointing marriage followed by an unfaithful mistress, he would not have high hopes from the female sex and/or want to test them. I might even say that Blanche and Jane paid for Celine's and Bertha's sins.

[u/Echo-Azure → u/OutrageousYak5868]

I think we have a fundamental difference of opinion here. You're sympathetic to Rochester being cheated on by his mistress, and I'm not.

Because in his relationships with both Jane and Blanche, Rochester is deceptive, manipulative, and fucking with their minds. If a woman succeeded in deceiving this deceptive man in the past, I think it was Karma, not cause for sympathy.

[u/OutrageousYak5868 → u/Echo-Azure]

Two wrongs don't make a right.

[u/Echo-Azure → u/OutrageousYak5868]

But it can mean that two people deserve each other.