The Wasp — 1896 — page 1007: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts a domestic crisis involving hypnotism. An enraged parent (left) demands a daughter leave the house, while the daughter appears distressed and controlled. A man in the center, likely a hypnotist or "mesmerist," holds what appears to be a hypnotic instrument or charm above a woman seated on the right. The caption suggests the daughter is "under hypnotic control"—the parent blames the hypnotist rather than the daughter for her behavior. This reflects late-19th/early-20th-century anxieties about mesmerism and hypnotism as pseudo-scientific threats to family authority and parental control. The joke satirizes both the fear of these emerging practices and their use as convenient excuses for misbehavior. The page is otherwise filled with period advertisements for champagne, wines, woolens, bourbon, and hotels.