Elliot's artistic allusion, "There will be time... to
prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet," and repetition of, "...the women come and go, talking of
Michelangelo," is symbolic of Prufrock's sculpting of a superficial identity at the expense of his dignity and
individuality. By utilising a crab as a metaphor for Prufrock; an animal stuck in a lateral state of motion,
Elliot reflects Prufrock's struggle to gain acceptance through this constant revision of his identity, “a pair of
ragged claws. Scuttling across the floors.." and that fact that he has completely forsaken his former identity
in a futile attempt to be accepted. Both Romulus an Prufrock exhibit two extremes; Romulus possesses an
erudite, rigid sense of individualism, whilst Prufrock completely lacks any sense of identity; undefined, thus
emphasising the importance of this balance that belonging denotes to a person's ability to connect. Hence,
Elliot's, and Gaita's texts mutually explore the notion of identity, challenging and reinforcing this concept
through their different representations of…
