The Wasp — 1914 — page 320: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page from *The Wasp* contains prose rather than a political cartoon. It describes a domestic scandal involving a woman named Kitty, her husband Percy (apparently wealthy), and a former suitor named Bob Willis (a ship's surgeon from Jamaica or Tobago who is now poor). The satire critiques how marriage laws—endorsed by church and state—bind a woman to her husband regardless of her preferences or his behavior. Kitty remains married to Percy despite preferring Willis, who now humiliates Percy daily by slapping him, yet Percy refuses to fight back, apparently intimidated by the smaller man. The piece satirizes both marriage's legal trap and masculine cowardice, using this specific domestic scenario as social commentary on institutional constraint and honor.