Foil

Character Role Analysis

Calvin and Powell and Donovan

Susan Calvin is a robopsychologist, whereas Powell and Donovan are more like robot engineers. Calvin could (theoretically) do all her work in her lab or office, interviewing robots and giving them Rorschach tests; but Powell and Donovan have to go out into the field to test their robots and see what goes wrong. So their occupations might make them foils.

But we think they're foils also in the way that Asimov treats them. Calvin is a serious scientist, who makes maybe one joke in the whole book (it's in "The Evitable Conflict," paragraph 30, and it's not very funny). She's a serious character and in turn, she's treated seriously. By contrast, Powell and Donovan are kind of like the comic relief: they're usually fighting humorously with each other. Check out in "Escape!" and compare their situations: Calvin is safe on Earth and seriously thinking about what Brain is doing; Powell and Donovan are in space—they even die temporarily—and it's kind of played for laughs. So Calvin is a foil for Powell and Donovan (or vice versa) because she's a serious person and they aren't so serious. But we should note that they all get their work done, eventually.