Seth Bede, though a minor character in the novel, has a considerable impact on his brother, and his general attitude should be noted. He is an absentminded, impractical, "wool-gathering" fellow, but he has a gentle, loving heart like Dinah's. When she refuses his marriage proposal, he says only, "I must seek for strength to bear it." Adam gravitates towards Seth's type of sympathetic humanity in the course of the novel.
