Adam
Adam is the play's figure of selfless old-world loyalty - his warning sends Orlando fleeing to the forest, and his collapse from hunger there prompts the confrontation that brings Orlando into Duke Senior's protection and company.
Appears In
Who is Adam?
Adam has served the de Boys family for decades and appears in the play's opening scene already siding, quietly, with Orlando against Oliver's neglect. When he learns that Oliver means to have Orlando killed - by fire, or some other means, he isn't certain which - he seeks Orlando out immediately to warn him, addressing him with a formality and tenderness that marks their bond as something closer to family than service.
His offer to fund Orlando's escape with his life's savings - 'here is the gold... take that, and He that doth the ravens feed... be comfort to my age' - is one of the play's most quietly moving gestures, an old man giving away his entire security to protect a young master who is not even his own blood. He asks nothing in return beyond permission to follow, framing his devotion as duty rather than sacrifice even as the play makes clear it is exactly the latter.
In the forest, Adam's age catches up with him - he collapses from hunger and exhaustion, and Orlando's fierce demand for food from Duke Senior's company is made entirely on Adam's behalf. Once fed and welcomed into the exiled court, Adam largely recedes from the text; the play does not dramatize his fate beyond this point, content to have shown, in his collapse and rescue, exactly what his loyalty had been worth.
Motivation
Adam is motivated entirely by devotion to the de Boys family and to Orlando specifically - a loyalty that costs him his savings, his comfort, and very nearly his life, offered without any expectation of reward.
Personality
Adam's loyalty is the play's plainest and least complicated feeling - he gives everything he has to protect Orlando and asks only to be allowed to follow him, a devotion that costs him dearly in physical terms once the journey to Arden exceeds what his age can bear.