Represented Identity: A Means to an End Represented identities exist primarily due to the fact that people are simply unable to obtain or achieve certain power, wealth, or escape through a natural means within their true identity. These represented identities allow people to accomplish the difficult task of crossing social boundaries. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story, “The Man with the Crooked Lip,” Neville St. Clair crosses social boundaries as a former middle-class journalist living the enacted identity of a wealthy upper-class gentleman. In his daily routine, St. Clair leaves behind his family and the norms of upper-class life each morning to assume a detestable identity as Hugh Boone, a beggar and match salesman. Often in the presence of a single represented identity, a second can be created in response to the first. The first very private identity played by St. Clair is that of Boone the beggar, which in turn leads to his accidental creation of St. Clair, the public English gentleman. As St. Clair straddles social boundaries between middle and upper class, she must then leap beyond the confines of her upper-class lifestyle to gain the wealth made possible only by Boone's makeup and ratty clothes. It appears that St. Clair has only one identity represented, that of Boone the beggar, however upon further examination it can be observed that there is another identity represented, that of St. Clair the upper class businessman. St. Clair, in his natural identity as a reporter, is caught in the middle between these two polar and extreme identities. St. Clair worked as a reporter for the evening paper in London for which he was assigned to write about begging on the tube......half of the paper......middle class reporter up to become a powerful and rich man. However, through the process he has to take a very big step back in order to take an even bigger step forward within society. The identities represented are not limited to fictional accounts. Every day they manifest themselves based on what we have to gain from certain situations. Doyle uses this story to address the issue and bring to light the fact that the identities depicted exist within each of us. For Neville St. Clair, it was a path to a better life. For you or me, it can be as small as making a better first impression at a party by elevating ourselves beyond who we truly are. The identities depicted do not have to be complex, well thought out, or long-lasting. Through some degree of deception, large or small, they create in all of us the ability to achieve something otherwise unattainable in our natural self..