Cartoons as Evidence

It can be quite a challenge to understand most cartoons. To make sense of a cartoon we have to know a lot about what was actually happening at the time it was drawn. We have to know who the main people in the cartoon are, and why those people were important or whom they represent. To make it even harder, cartoonists use all kinds of symbols in their work, so we also need to understand what these symbols mean. The cartoonist might even compare people or events in their cartoon to things that no longer exist today. We need to be aware of why the cartoonist has drawn his work. Is he working for the government or a publication that has a strong political bias?

No wonder, then, that it is very easy to misunderstand cartoons. Readers have to work out what the cartoon means by themselves. They are given clues in the cartoon, but those clues are in the pictures. For example, the way the cartoonist has chosen to draw important people tells us what he/she thought about them. The situation or background also gives us clues about a cartoon's meaning.

'Cartoon from circa 1820 poking fun at the Queen Caroline affair'