The Wasp — 1877 — page 237: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a humorous illustrated narrative poem about a mouse causing chaos in a bedroom at night. The sequence depicts an elderly couple's escalating panic: the mouse appears, startling them awake; the old man frightens easily while his wife reacts with alarm; they attempt to catch it with increasingly frantic efforts; the wife pursues it with a broom while the husband shouts encouragement; eventually the mouse escapes to its hole, having thoroughly disrupted their sleep. The satire targets domestic anxieties and the disproportionate human response to minor household pests. The detailed, sympathetic portrayal of the mouse's perspective (panel IX shows it safely in its hole, pleased with the chaos caused) adds gentle mockery of how seriously people take such trivial intrusions. It's satirizing overblown domestic drama rather than commenting on specific politics.