Clara Dawes Timeline and Summary

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• One day, while walking with her friend Miriam, Clara meets Paul Morel. She acts unimpressed.
• She's not fond of men in general, and she's had bad luck with the menfolk when it comes to romance.
• She keeps spending time with Miriam, who keeps inviting her to hang out.
• One day, Clara hears Paul say that a certain woman in the community is lovely. She says that the woman is far cleverer than most men, and feels offended at the condescending language Paul uses when describing this woman.
• She makes fun of Paul's singing to try and put him in his place, but Paul doesn't take the hint.
• As they're out walking one day, Clara takes a really keen interest in a horse, showing her soft side.
• When she's not looking, Paul scatters flowers down her back and recites a rhyme. For the first time, she doesn't react totally coldly.
• Ah, young love.
• One day, Clara plays a game with Paul that involves jumping over a pile of hay. Clara gets very competitive about beating the boys, and gets super angry when they try to disqualify her.
• Through her political associations, Clara starts to involve Paul in various ideological groups.
• One day, Paul visits her house with a message. Clara's embarrassed to be seen in her home and doing women's lacework. She wants to return to her previous job at Jordan's, but she won't admit it openly.
• Like a true Knight in Shining Armor, Paul gets it, and gets her a job working at Jordan's again.
• The women at Jordan's buy Paul a set of paints for his birthday. But Clara won't chip in.
• None of the women like her because she's very aloof.
• Paul calls her out on not chipping in, but she later gives him a volume of poetry that's very special to him.
• Then Paul asks her about her marriage, and she admits that Baxter never quite did it for her.
• Clara criticizes Paul for not being better to Miriam, mostly because she likes to criticize everyone, not because she really cares about Miriam.
• She loves to condescend the dude, and tell him he doesn't know anything about the world.
• Finally, one drizzly afternoon, Paul and Clara have sex in the woods. They go to a teahouse afterward.
• It's unclear how Clara feels about the whole thing.
• It's unclear how Clara feels about most things, except that she doesn't like them much.
• Clara goes to the Morels' house to meet Paul's mother. The two of them get along pretty well.
• As she and Paul continue to have sex, she accuses him one day of not being over Miriam.
• After going to the theater with Paul one night, Clara invites him back to her house. The owner of the house, Mrs. Radford, stays up all night to make sure the two of them don't get any alone time.
• After everyone has gone to bed, Clara goes to warm herself at the kitchen fire.
• She later finds out that Paul has had an altercation with her husband, Baxter Dawes. This puts her on edge about her relationship with Paul.
• Clara realizes that she wants Paul in a way that he can't reciprocate.
• You know, because Paul's one and only true female love is his mother, Mrs. Morel.
• After Paul's mother dies, Clara tries to comfort him.
• She finds out that Paul has been visiting her husband Baxter in the hospital. She decides to visit Baxter too.
• She starts to dread being around Paul, realizing that he only comes to her for sex. He uses her body to distract himself from how much his life sucks.
• Eventually, Clara goes to visit Paul in a cottage he's staying at.
• But when she gets there, she finds Baxter there, too. Paul leaves early and breaks things off with her, leaving her alone in the house with Baxter.
• After a tender conversation, Clara reunites with her estranged husband.
• We don't know whether she's really happy about this or not.