Seth Bede, Adam's younger brother, looks up to his older brother with admiration and a sense of discipleship. While Adam begins to experience some of the dark side of life, Seth remains somewhat blissfully ignorant and innocent. Seth seems untroubled when Adam courts Dinah—the girl Seth loves although they remain only friends. While this may seem an odd relationship by modern standards, it must be remembered that in this rural setting there is a dearth of eligible single men and women and only so many potential combinations of couples. Adam is sometimes overbearing with Seth in his role as older brother, but the reader gets the sense that Adam is only trying to impart some sense of struggle in the adult world to prepare Seth for adulthood in the absence of their father.
