Marriage is an underlying theme in practically all of Jane Austens stories and it definitely shows in Persuasion. There are widows, marriages, and the eventual engagement of Captain Wentworth and Anne. What I think is important to a healthy marriage is everything that happens before the actual engagement, and Jane Austen uses the action of walking to grow a relationship between characters. Jane Austen uses the action of walking to develop characters and to develop the feelings between two characters.

Anne goes on multiple walks by herself to sometimes clear her mind or to think of Wentworth. For example on page 19 she says, “a few months more, and he, perhaps, may be walking here.” Anne in this scene is walking and Jane Austen uses walking in this instance as character development. Here we learn that Anne still has strong feelings for Wentworth and would like him to be with her.  Kathleen Anderson and Tiffany Vonderbecke  agree with me with the use of the quote above when it describes the love that Anne still has for Wentworth. They state, “She still loves Wentworth, despite having ended their engagement and having been separated from him for so long.” Obviously these feelings have not gone away, but walking really increases the feelings Anne has for Wentworth.