57-58). This image suggests that not only is he an object for speculation, but he is trapped in that role; a situation which he is obviously unhappy with but has no idea how to change; he asks himself, "Then how should I begin"(59). At this point in the poem, Prufrock is beginning to feel especially detached from society and burdened by his awareness of it. He thinks "I should have been a pair of ragged claws/ Scuttling across the floors of silent seas." Eliot not only uses imagery here to create a picture of a headless crab scuttling around at the bottom of the ocean, but he uses the form of the poem itself to help emphasize his point here. The head is detached from the crab, and the lines are detached from the poem in their own stanza, much like Prufrock wishes his self-consciousness would just "detach" itself. This concept is echoed in the very next stanza when he says, "Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in/ upon a platter,"(83), an allusion to the beheading of John the Baptist by Princess Salome. These two headless images represent Prufrock's desire to be rid of his self-consciousness (obviously in his head) and possibly some suicidal tendencies which can be tied into just about all of the ambiguous questions Prufrock asks of himself throughout the poem. Prufrock's series of questions can also be tied into his unsuccessful attempts at relationships with women. His insecurities keep him from doing the things he wants to do; he feels inadequate and unable to express his true feelings to women, "Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,/ Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?"(79-80). He knows what he wants to say, but doesn't have the confidence or mental capacity to put his feelings into words. He compares himself to Hamlet, "No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;"(111), who, in contrast, was able to express his feelings very successfully to his lover - an ability which Prufrock is envious...
