With the Photographer - Stephen Leacock - ICSE - Std X
Updated: Aug 13
1. Story Information
Story Title: With the Photographer
Author: Stephen Leacock
Anthology: Treasure Chest: A Collection of ICSE Short Stories and Poems (Evergreen Publications)
Textbook: ICSE Class 10 English Literature (CISCE)
Exam Component: Paper 2 — Literature in English, Prose section (16 marks)
2. About the Author
Stephen Butler Leacock (1869–1944) was an English-born Canadian humourist, academic, and political economist who became one of the most widely read English-language writers of comedic prose in the early twentieth century. Teaching for many years at McGill University, Leacock balanced rigorous academic pursuits with a prolific output of satirical essays and light fiction. His writing relies on deadpan irony, logical escalation of absurd scenarios, and acute observation of human self-importance. "With the Photographer," collected in Behind the Beyond (1913), exemplifies his signature style by converting a routine studio appointment into a hilarious conflict between individual authenticity and rigid professional arrogance.
3. Narrative Beat Map
Narrative Beat | What Happens |
Arrival at the Studio | The narrator enters the studio requesting a portrait, but the photographer receives him with cold indifference. |
The Prolonged Wait | The narrator is left in the waiting room for an hour alongside severely outdated periodicals. |
Inspection in the Studio | Admitted to the inner room, the narrator is subjected to a critical physical inspection under filtered light. |
Absurd Posing Commands | The photographer demands unnatural physical adjustments while expressing disdain for every facial feature. |
The Narrator's Outburst | Goaded beyond endurance, the narrator fiercely defends his imperfect face as his own cherished identity. |
The Secret Capture | The photographer snaps the shutter during the narrator's emotional protest, praising the resulting expression. |
Inspection of the Proof | Returning on Saturday, the narrator finds his features heavily retouched and entirely unrecognisable. |
Rejection of the Portrait | The narrator condemns the altered picture as a worthless object and leaves in indignation. |
4. Summary
A middle-aged narrator visits a commercial photography studio wanting a simple portrait for his friends to remember him by. Instead of warm customer service, he meets an aloof, scientific photographer who makes him wait an hour with outdated magazines before bringing him into a gloomy studio. The photographer scrutinises the narrator's face, declares it unsatisfactory, and forces his body into increasingly unnatural poses while criticizing his mouth, eyes, and facial structure. When the narrator finally snaps and delivers an impassioned speech defending his natural, imperfect face, the photographer snaps the shutter, claiming to have captured genuine animation. Upon returning days later to inspect the proof, the narrator discovers that heavy retouching has completely erased his real features, replacing them with standard, artificial corrections. Furious that his personal likeness has been destroyed, the narrator refuses to pay for the worthless print and walks out.
5. Vocabulary in Context
Word/Phrase | Meaning IN THIS CONTEXT | Where It Appears |
Unwarrantable | Unjustified, intrusive, or lacking valid grounds. | The Prolonged Wait |
Scientific pursuits | Serious technical or experimental investigations. | The Prolonged Wait |
Frosted | Glass treated to make it translucent rather than transparent. | Inspection in the Studio |
Three-quarters full | A photographic angle showing most of the face turned slightly sideways. | Absurd Posing Commands |
Animation | Liveliness, vigor, or visible emotional energy. | The Secret Capture |
Proof | A preliminary photographic print shown for approval before final production. | Inspection of the Proof |
Retouched | Digitally or manually altered to eliminate perceived flaws. | Inspection of the Proof |
Delphide | An invented chemical or technical process name used to sound authoritative. | Inspection of the Proof |
Bauble | A showy, cheap trinket lacking genuine worth. | Rejection of the Portrait |
6. Character Sketches
The Narrator
The narrator is an observant, self-aware, and fundamentally patient middle-aged man who seeks a genuine keepsake for his loved ones. Initially accommodating, he obeys the photographer’s absurd commands out of politeness and modesty. His witty internal observations reveal an intelligent mind capable of recognizing professional pomposity. When his personal dignity is pushed to its limits, he delivers a passionate defense of his natural appearance, demonstrating profound self-acceptance. By rejecting the heavily edited photograph at the end, he affirms that authentic identity is far more valuable than artificial perfection.
The Photographer
The photographer is a cold, authoritarian, and self-important craftsman who treats human subjects as defective raw material. Lacking empathy and basic courtesy, he views his work as an elite scientific endeavor rather than a service. His obsession with mechanical standards of beauty blinds him to the emotional purpose of a portrait. Unmoved by the narrator’s visible distress, he takes pride in erasing natural features to produce a artificial, unrecognizable image. He represents technical expertise completely divorced from human understanding.
7. Central Theme
7A. Theme
The story is fundamentally about the conflict between authentic personal identity and artificially imposed standards of perfection. It asserts that true value lies in accepting one's natural, lived-in appearance rather than submitting to manufactured ideals that erase individuality.
7B. Ideas / Social Concerns
A secondary concern is professional arrogance and the misuse of technical skills. The narrative critiques experts who prioritize mechanical procedures over customer dignity, highlighting how technology can easily be abused to distort reality rather than preserve it.
8. Key Literary Devices
Device | Example | Effect | Where It Appears |
Deadpan Irony | "I began to see that I had done an unwarrantable thing in breaking in on the privacy of this man’s scientific pursuits with a face like mine." | Mocks the photographer's severe manner by pretending the customer's presence is an improper intrusion. | The Prolonged Wait |
Comic Escalation | The photographer orders the narrator to expand his forehead, roll his eyes, droop his ears, and contract his waist. | Builds situational humour by accumulating physical demands until they reach total anatomical impossibility. | Absurd Posing Commands |
Verbal Irony | The photographer commends the narrator's angry outburst as a moment of desirable "animation." | Exposes the photographer's complete obliviousness to the human emotion and insult driving the moment. | The Secret Capture |
Satire | The photographer uses invented technical jargon like the "Delphide process" to justify removing facial features. | Ridicules commercial professions that use pseudo-scientific pretense to hide the destruction of genuine art. | Inspection of the Proof |
9. Extract Practice
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
"Stop," I said with emotion but, I think, with dignity. "This face is my face. It is not yours, it is mine. I’ve lived with it for forty years and I know its faults. I know it’s out of drawing. I know it wasn’t made for me, but it’s my face, the only one I have -" I was conscious of a break in my voice but I went on - "such as it is, I’ve learned to love it. And this is my mouth, not yours. These ears are mine, and if your machine is too narrow -" Here I started to rise from the seat.
(i) What immediate circumstance provokes the narrator to make this speech? [3] Answer: The photographer has spent several minutes subjecting the narrator to harsh physical criticism and forcing him into painful, unnatural postures. He continuously disparages the narrator's eyes, mouth, neck, and waist as improper for photography. This relentless stream of personal insults finally breaks the narrator's patience and forces him to defend his dignity.
(ii) Why does the speaker repeatedly emphasize possessive pronouns like "my" and "mine"? [3]
Answer: The repetition of possessive terms asserts the narrator's personal ownership over his physical body and individual identity. It directly rejects the photographer's implicit claim that a customer's face is merely raw material to be altered. The linguistic emphasis underscores rising emotional passion and deep self-acceptance.
(iii) What does the phrase "out of drawing" signify in this context? [3]
Answer: The expression indicates that the narrator's facial features do not conform to standard artistic proportions or conventional symmetry. It demonstrates his mature, self-aware perspective regarding his own physical imperfections. Rather than being vain, the narrator acknowledges his flaws while firmly demanding respect for them.
(iv) How does the narrator's tone evolve during this scene? [3]
Answer: The narrator's tone shifts from passive, cooperative politeness to passionate and dignified defiance. While his voice carries a slight tremor of genuine emotional hurt, his words remain resolute and assertive. He transitions from an obedient subject into a firm defender of personal authenticity.
(v) Discuss how this incident serves as the central thematic turning point of the story. [4]
Answer: The scene marks a critical transition where light situational comedy transforms into a meaningful critique of artificial beauty standards. Prior to this moment, the narrator meekly accepts the photographer's authority, but his speech establishes that an imperfect face holds emotional value through decades of lived experience. By asserting that his features belong to him rather than to an arbitrary standard of art, he rejects the notion that technological editing improves human identity. This confrontation lays the moral foundation for his ultimate decision to walk away from the altered portrait at the end of the narrative.
10. Short Answer Questions
Q1. Explain the central theme of the story in your own words.
Answer: The story centers on the preservation of authentic personal identity in opposition to artificial, mechanically enforced perfection. Stephen Leacock demonstrates that true self-worth comes from accepting one's natural features and the personal history they represent. The photographer's excessive retouching transforms a recognizable human face into a generic, lifeless object, showing that commercial beauty standards often destroy individuality. Ultimately, the narrative proves that a genuine, imperfect likeness is far more valuable than a flawless but false representation.
Q2. Do you consider the narrator justified in rejecting the final photograph? Explain with reference to his original purpose.
Answer: The narrator is completely justified in rejecting the proof because it fails to meet his primary objective. He originally sought a true photographic portrait that his friends could cherish as an accurate keepsake after his death. However, the photographer modified his eyes, eyebrows, hair, and mouth to such an extent that the image no longer resembled him. Accepting a manufactured face would mean offering his friends a decorative falsehood rather than a genuine memory of himself. By calling the print a worthless bauble and leaving it behind, he rightly protects his personal identity over technical polish.
