The Wasp — 1879 — page 651: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts a man tormented by anxious thoughts before bed. The central figure, a mustachioed gentleman in nightclothes, is surrounded by smaller vignettes showing various worries: financial troubles (a man examining empty pockets), domestic conflicts (couples arguing or in distress), physical ailments (a contorted figure), social embarrassments, and other sources of anxiety. The satire mocks the modern bourgeois male's inability to rest peacefully due to mounting personal, financial, and social pressures. Each surrounding scene represents intrusive "cogitations" preventing sleep—a relatable commentary on 19th-century urban anxieties about money, relationships, and respectability that plague the thinking man at night.