The two best-developed characters in Quest for the Future are Peter Caxton and Selanie. Caxton is a paranoid man of the twentieth century; he is "dominant, subjective, self-centered, on the personal level incapable of seeing another point of view." Selanie is his love-interest and looks nineteen-yearsold but is actually over four hundredyears-old. He is initially interested in her because she seems to hold the secrets of immortality; later, he sexually desires her. As he grows, he learns to love her unselfishly. She initially treats him with the contempt his selfishness deserves. Her change in attitilde is not as well shown as is Caxton's, but her mysterious personality serves well as a symbol for Caxton's goal: immortality.