An All Consuming Love

Romance is an integral component in one's relationship whether in marriage or courtship. At one time during the nineteenth century, courtship followed a well symbolized series of actions correlated to formal rituals but at the turn of the twentieth century, these rituals have changed the symbolic meaning of romance. According to the author, romance is described as a worldly thing that is not regarded as religious. Since romance is considered a form of ritual, it does not necessarily mean it’s a type of a religious act. This is because romance is liable to official rules similar to those of religious rituals. They both practice a pattern of behaviour regularly performed in a specific set of manner. Although it is a secular behaviour, it can be completely experienced by setting boundaries, sacred time, space, and feelings from non sacred.

The purpose of the article is to set up a set of boundaries brought in by the author which are considered "romantic" interaction. These symbolic boundaries are: temporal, emotional, spatial, and artificial. In this article, the author is trying to deliver the symbolic importance of romance in the present time. This is managed by explaining the significance of each category in order to experience a romantic moment. The author's method in gathering data to answer his questions is achieved by interviewing either male or a female in each category of the boundaries. For each type of boundary, the author asks an interviewee a question and then analyzes their answer to prove the idea of romance that fits into the category.

The findings from the article prove that there is specific behaviours people experience with a special someone either by making time to do a special romantic thing, going out to dinner, buying expensive gifts, and sharing an extraordinary feeling with someone special. They are all considered ritual acts because they are set of behaviours that people experience in their relationships. These characteristics are a part of the romantic activities shared between a dating or married couple. The romantic activities are divided into three types: gastronomic, cultural, and touristic. Whether it is direct/indirect consumption or no consumption at all, they are all considered a typical romantic moment for the categories. For example, a man taking his wife or girlfriend out to dinner at an expensive restaurant would be considered a romantic moment on the man's behalf. The dinner outing is considered romantic because it can be classified under a gastronomic activity involving direct consumption due to the purchase of goods as opposed to being classified as indirect consumption which would require the couple to have dinner at home instead. In both cases the dinner would still be considered romantic, the only