Calvin Evans Character Analysis in Lessons in Chemistry

Calvin Evans is a brilliant young scientist and rowing enthusiast who works alongside Elizabeth at the Hastings Institute. Calvin is a genius with multiple Nobel Prize nominations, and he’s one of the most famous scientists in the country. His intelligence is the source of much admiration and jealousy from those around him. In general, Calvin is a good-natured and well-meaning person. Although there are rumors around Hastings that Calvin likes to hold a grudge, the only person he really hates is his biological father, who he believes abandoned him. In reality, Calvin’s father died before he was born and never had a chance to care for him, though this fact only comes to light after Calvin’s death. Calvin falls in love with Elizabeth after meeting her at Hastings. Although Calvin generally agrees with Elizabeth’s socially liberal attitudes, he feels that they should marry and have kids, a position he hopes she will slowly come around to. Unfortunately, Calvin dies in a tragic and random accident before either can happen, though Elizabeth discovers that she is pregnant shortly after his death and goes on to raise their child, Madeline, as a single mother.

Calvin Evans Quotes in Lessons in Chemistry

The Lessons in Chemistry quotes below are all either spoken by Calvin Evans or refer to Calvin Evans. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“Look, I know it’s not your fault, but they shouldn’t send a secretary up here to do their dirty work. Now I know this might be hard for you to understand, but I’m in the middle of something important. Please. Just tell your boss to call me.”

Related Characters: Calvin Evans (speaker), Elizabeth Zott

Page Number and Citation: 12

Explanation and Analysis:

Elizabeth shook her head. “Our future happiness does not depend on whether or not we’re married, Calvin—at least not to me. I’m fully committed to you; marriage will not change that. As for who thinks what, it’s not just a handful of people: it’s society—particularly the society of scientific research. Everything I do will suddenly be in your name, as if you’d done it. In fact, most people will assume you’ve done it simply because you’re a man, but especially because you’re Calvin Evans. I don’t want to be another Mileva Einstein or Esther Lederberg, Calvin; I refuse. And even if we took all the proper legal steps to ensure my name won’t change, it will still change. Everyone will call me Mrs. Calvin Evans; I will become Mrs. Calvin Evans.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Calvin Evans

Page Number and Citation: 52

Explanation and Analysis:

Rowing a pair with Elizabeth. How glorious!

“No.”

“But why?”

“Because. Women don’t row.” But as soon as she’d said it, she regretted it.

“Elizabeth Zott,” he said, surprised. “Are you actually saying women can’t row?” That sealed it.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Calvin Evans (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 62

Explanation and Analysis:

This was the other thing he hated about Zott: she was tireless. Stiff. Didn’t know when to quit. Standard rower attributes, now that he thought about it. He hadn’t rowed in years. Was there really a women’s team in town? Obviously, she couldn’t possibly be rowing with Evans. An elite rower like Evans would never deign to get in a boat with a novice, even if they were sleeping together. Scratch that; especially if they were sleeping together. Evans probably signed her up for some beginner crew, and Zott, wanting to prove that she could hold her own—per usual—went along with it.

Related Characters: Dr. Donatti (speaker), Elizabeth Zott, Calvin Evans

Page Number and Citation: 71

Explanation and Analysis:

Now, sitting rigidly on her stool in the lab, she could hear a policeman talking about someone who’d died and someone else insisting she take his handkerchief and still another saying something about a vet, but all she could think about was that moment long ago when her toes had touched bottom, the soft, silky mud inviting her to stay. Knowing what she knew now, she could only think one thing: I should have.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott, Madeline Zott, Harriet Sloane, Calvin Evans

Page Number and Citation: 96

Explanation and Analysis:

Crouching, he waited for the man to leave, then relaxed his body down the length of the casket buried below. Hello, Calvin.

This is how he communicated with humans on the other side. Maybe it worked; maybe it didn’t. He used the same technique with the creature growing inside Elizabeth. Hello, Creature, he transmitted as he pressed his ear into Elizabeth’s belly. It’s me, Six-Thirty. I’m the dog.

Related Characters: Six-Thirty (speaker), Elizabeth Zott, Calvin Evans, Madeline Zott

Page Number and Citation: 118

Explanation and Analysis:

“Take a moment for yourself,” Harriet said. “Every day.” “A moment.”

“A moment where you are your own priority. Just you.

Not your baby, not your work, not your dead Mr. Evans, not your filthy house, not anything. Just you. Elizabeth Zott. Whatever you need, whatever you want, whatever you seek, reconnect with it in that moment.” She gave a sharp tug to her fake pearls. “Then recommit.”

Related Characters: Harriet Sloane (speaker), Elizabeth Zott, Calvin Evans

Page Number and Citation: 147

Explanation and Analysis:

So, sometime after it was all over, when a nurse came in with a stack of papers demanding to know something—how she felt?—she decided to tell her.

“Mad.”

“Mad?” the nurse had asked.

“Yes, mad,” Elizabeth had answered. Because she was. “Are you sure?” the nurse had asked.

“Of course I’m sure!”

And the nurse, who was tired of tending to women who were never at their best—this one had practically engraved her name on her arm during labor—wrote “Mad” on the birth certificate and stalked out.

So there it was: the baby’s legal name was Mad. Mad Zott.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Avery Parker, Madeline Zott, Calvin Evans

Page Number and Citation: 152

Explanation and Analysis:

“No, Mad,” Elizabeth said. “The person who wants to interview me isn’t even a science reporter; he writes for the women’s page. He’s already told me he has no interest in talking about chemistry, just dinner. Clearly, he doesn’t understand you can’t separate the two. And I suspect he also wants to ask questions about our family, even though our family is none of his business.”

“Why not?” Madeline asked. “What’s wrong with our family?”

Related Characters: Madeline Zott (speaker), Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Calvin Evans

Page Number and Citation: 263

Explanation and Analysis:

“As for Calvin’s death,” she said, “I’m one hundred percent responsible.” He paled as she went on to describe the accident and the leash and the sirens, and how because of it, she would never hold anyone back in any way, ever again. As she saw it, his death spawned a series of other failures: blindsided by Donatti’s theft, she’d given up her research; determined to help her daughter fit in, she’d enrolled her in a school where she did not; worse, she’d become the very person she least wanted to be, a performer like her father.

Related Characters: Elizabeth Zott (speaker), Calvin Evans, Dr. Donatti, Franklin Roth, Elizabeth’s Father

Page Number and Citation: 333-334

Explanation and Analysis:

Calvin Evans Character Timeline in Lessons in Chemistry

The timeline below shows where the character Calvin Evans appears in Lessons in Chemistry. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...aspire for more. On occasion, she lies in bed and thinks about a man named Calvin Evans, who she feels is responsible for the current trajectory of her life. (full context)

Ten years earlier, in January of 1952, Elizabeth is working with Calvin Evans at the Hastings Research Institute. By all accounts, Calvin is a genius when it... (full context)

After studying at Cambridge, Calvin moves to Southern California and meets Elizabeth at the Hastings Research Institute, where they both... (full context)

A few weeks later, Calvin tracks down Elizabeth and apologizes for his behavior. He also asks her out on a... (full context)

...but decides to leave at intermission because she hates it. As luck would have it, Calvin is also there, on a date with a secretary from the Hastings Institute. Throughout the... (full context)

Elizabeth helps Calvin home and makes sure he is okay. She tells him that he probably just has... (full context)

Overcoming Tragedy and Trauma Theme Icon

One week later, Elizabeth and Calvin discuss Elizabeth’s research interests over a cup of coffee. Elizabeth tells him that, prior to... (full context)

Calvin then asks why Elizabeth is no longer researching polyphosphoric acids, which he sees as a... (full context)

Three weeks later, Elizabeth and Calvin are standing in a parking lot, arguing about their research. Calvin had made a point... (full context)

Although Elizabeth and Calvin enjoy a happy and exciting first few months of their relationship, many of their co-workers... (full context)

The only issue in Elizabeth and Calvin’s relationship—other than the disrespect they receive from their peers—is that they have put off the... (full context)

One day, just before Thanksgiving, Calvin works up the courage to ask Elizabeth if she will be going anywhere for the... (full context)

Elizabeth and Calvin are both surprised by what the other has to say. However, neither presses the other... (full context)

Although Calvin and Elizabeth are happy together, it seems that everyone at Hastings is rooting for their... (full context)

However, Elizabeth and Calvin have more pressing concerns other than what their peers think about them. For one, they... (full context)

Calvin also tries to get Elizabeth to come work with him in his lab, but she... (full context)

Elizabeth and Calvin also discuss the topic of marriage, which Elizabeth is against. Calvin respects Elizabeth’s position, but... (full context)

Elizabeth immediately rejects Calvin. She tells him that she does not want to become “Mrs. Calvin Evans” because of... (full context)

Calvin asks Elizabeth if she will reconsider. He wants to start a family and thinks of... (full context)

A month after Calvin suggests he and Elizabeth get a dog, one follows Elizabeth home from the grocery store.... (full context)

...near a highway. He was on his own for a while before finding Elizabeth and Calvin. Elizabeth and Calvin fall in love with Six-Thirty and take him everywhere, including to Hastings.... (full context)

One day, Calvin asks Elizabeth to come rowing with him. At first, Elizabeth balks at the idea and... (full context)

The first few times Elizabeth and Calvin row together, Elizabeth feels overwhelmed and annoyed. She can never get the movements right and... (full context)

As much as Donatti hates Calvin, he dislikes Elizabeth even more because she is a smart and opinionated woman. He does... (full context)

Although Elizabeth repeatedly tells him not to, Calvin goes to speak with Donatti about Elizabeth’s research a few days later. Calvin warns Donatti... (full context)

Shortly after Elizabeth resumes her abiogenesis research, Calvin talks to Dr. Mason, the captain of the rowing team at their local boathouse. He... (full context)

Although Calvin is not one to hold grudges, there is one person whom Calvin does hold a... (full context)

When Calvin asked the bishop about the educational materials, the bishop told him that the donor was... (full context)

When Calvin questions him further, the bishop shows him his birth certificate, which has his real mother’s... (full context)

Calvin opens a letter from a woman who claims she is his mother—it is the second... (full context)

The only person who knows about Calvin’s biological father, other than those who ran the boys home, is Wakely, Calvin’s old pen... (full context)

Calvin also thinks about the city’s new leash law. He and Elizabeth recently argued over whether... (full context)

During their jog, Calvin and Six-Thirty pass the police station. As they pass the station, several police cars that... (full context)

...realize what they have done, they get out of the car and try to help Calvin. Nearby, Six-Thirty looks on and can tell that Calvin is close to death. Before long,... (full context)

Elizabeth is distraught when she learns about what happened to Calvin. She feels responsible for his death because she asked him to start using a leash... (full context)

A reporter spots Elizabeth and begins asking her questions about Calvin. The reporter does not realize who Elizabeth is and speaks rather casually. Elizabeth does nothing... (full context)

...employees do anything else to comfort Elizabeth—in fact, they purposely ignore her. Elizabeth walks to Calvin’s lab and is shocked to find that everything has already been cleaned and packed away.... (full context)

...thinks about everything she has lost, Frask enters the lab. She sees Elizabeth going through Calvin’s things and warns her that she is not allowed to touch them. Her language makes... (full context)

Frask also hands Elizabeth an article written by the reporter she met at Calvin’s funeral. The article is unflattering toward both Elizabeth and Calvin. As she reads the article,... (full context)

Calvin’s passing and the publication of the disparaging article create a dilemma for Hastings because their... (full context)

...Elizabeth. When Elizabeth contests her dismissal on the grounds of her pregnancy, she learns that Calvin's influence was the sole reason she had been allowed to pursue her abiogenesis research at... (full context)

Six-Thirty visits Calvin’s gravesite and studies the inscription on his tombstone. Elizabeth has been teaching Six-Thirty English to... (full context)

Three months after Calvin's death, Elizabeth transforms her kitchen into a laboratory. Luckily, Calvin included her on the deed... (full context)

During one of his trips to the cemetery, Six-Thirty speaks to Calvin’s gravestone. Six-Thirty conveys updates about Elizabeth’s new lab, her ongoing efforts to teach him words,... (full context)

As Six-Thirty speaks to Calvin, the cemetery groundskeeper attempts to shoot him. Six-Thirty deftly evades the man and accidentally causes... (full context)

...approach deeply moves Elizabeth, marking the first time someone has shown her such empathy since Calvin’s death. (full context)

...the money. However, she unintentionally falls asleep as soon as Boryweitz departs. She dreams about Calvin and is later woken up by her neighbor, Mrs. Harriet Sloane, who comes to check... (full context)

Harriet had been closely observing Elizabeth and Calvin’s relationship from the start, albeit from the discrete distance of her window. At first, she... (full context)

...back, Harriet thinks she should not have returned to a workplace that mistreated her and Calvin. Although Elizabeth does not know it, Donatti only rehired her because he knows he needs... (full context)

...to lose weight. As an act of retaliation, Frask decides to leave Elizabeth all of Calvin's work, which was previously stored away. Frask and Elizabeth both know what they are doing... (full context)

...asks Elizabeth about their financial status. Her questions lead Elizabeth to recall finding letters among Calvin's things, including offers from top universities. She knows he only accepted his role at Hastings... (full context)

While going through Calvin’s things, Elizabeth also finds a letter in which he expresses hatred toward his father. This... (full context)

Walter expresses his condolences for Calvin’s death and empathizes with Elizabeth, but he advises against sharing those personal details with the... (full context)

...worried about her inability to complete the family tree due to her limited knowledge about Calvin. Harriet comforts her, accidentally revealing that Calvin had a kind of “fairy godmother.” Harriet learned... (full context)

Harriet pieces together that the donor was making donations on Calvin’s behalf and stopped after he left the home. Despite Madeline’s curiosity about her father’s past,... (full context)

...volunteers to call for Madeline and is shocked to learn that her deceased father is Calvin Evans, someone he once knew. Wakely had corresponded with Calvin after being impressed by his... (full context)

Years later, after taking over his father's congregation, Wakely had intended to reconnect with Calvin, only to learn of his death. After discovering what happened to Calvin, Wakely officiated his... (full context)

...taken aback by his unawareness. Wakely then shares with Madeline his fruitless efforts to confirm Calvin Evans’s connection with the All Saints Boys Home. Despite multiple attempts to contact the bishop... (full context)

...a man named Wilson from the Parker Foundation (a wealthy Catholic organization) came looking for Calvin Evans with the intention of adopting him. The bishop had been expecting that Wilson was... (full context)

As such, the bishop lied and told Wilson that Calvin was dead, and he suggested setting up a donor fund in his name. Shocked, Wilson... (full context)

In the present, the bishop, weary of past complications related to Calvin, has been evading Wakely’s calls. To confirm Madeline’s doubts, Wakely contacts the home again, posing... (full context)

...discusses her research on abiogenesis. Initially, the interview lacks excitement, so Roth boldly asks about Calvin, even though he told himself he wouldn’t. At first, Roth thinks he has ruined the... (full context)

Elizabeth describes Calvin as her “soulmate” to Roth, who is surprised by her use of language. She highlights... (full context)

...Wakely’s office carrying the manila envelope. There, Frask recognized Madeline due to her resemblance to Calvin. Frask tells Madeline that she knew Calvin and that he loved Elizabeth very much. Frask... (full context)

...to each other. During their talk, Elizabeth reveals that she has read his letters to Calvin and shares that Calvin chose to work at Hastings partly because of Wakely’s remarks about... (full context)

...Elizabeth and discuss plans to improve the laboratory. During the conversation, Wilson offhandedly brings up Calvin Evans’s unfinished work. This triggers Elizabeth to connect the dots between the wealthy donor at... (full context)

In their private discussion, Elizabeth confronts Avery about the connections between Wilson, Calvin, and All Saints. Avery responds with a heart-wrenching story about a teenage girl who becomes... (full context)

...that she had sent Wilson, her lawyer and the head of her foundation, to find Calvin. However, the bishop misled Wilson, claiming that Calvin was deceased. In response, Avery decided to... (full context)

Avery had been careful about reconnecting with Calvin. Wilson was sent to fund Elizabeth’s research at Hastings after Avery discovered Elizabeth and Calvin’s... (full context)

Hearing this, Elizabeth is overwhelmed with emotion. She affirms her deep love for Calvin, whom she considers the best thing in her life. In a moment of profound happiness... (full context)

Curious, Elizabeth asks about Calvin’s biological father. Avery reveals that he died from tuberculosis before Calvin was born. Then she... (full context)

Lessons in Chemistry

Calvin Evans Character Analysis

Calvin Evans Quotes in Lessons in Chemistry

Chapter 3: Hastings Research Institute Quotes

Chapter 6: The Hastings Cafeteria Quotes

Chapter 7: Six-Thirty Quotes

Chapter 8: Overreaching Quotes

Chapter 12: Calvin’s Parting Gift Quotes

Chapter 14: Grief Quotes

Chapter 17: Harriet Sloane Quotes

Chapter 18: Legally Mad Quotes

Chapter 30: 99 Percent Quotes

Chapter 37: Sold Out Quotes

Calvin Evans Character Timeline in Lessons in Chemistry