Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly is a story that uncovers the mistreatment of women patients in insane asylums and institutions during the 1800’s. In Nellie Bly’s text Ten Days in a Mad-House, she discusses the different ways the patients in these institutions were treated as well as the conditions of these institutions.  The jobs of the workers in these asylums were to help the women get better from what they were suffering, yet more often than not these staff members would emotionally and physically abuse the women they were in charge of. The emotional and physical abuse was not the only problem but it extended to health concerns involving food and insufficient clothing. Nellie Bly’s text seems to be influenced by the movements going on around her, like those by Dorothea Dix. Dorothea Dix was a reformer during the 1800’s that worked to create new institutions on behalf of the mentally ill (Dorothea Lynde Dix). The inadequate staffing and limited material for patients led to Nellie Bly’s need to make it public knowledge what these conditions were like as well as Dorthea Dix’s need to start a movement for better institutions. These two women go hand-in-hand with what they were fighting for through their work.  

During the time period in which Ten Days in a Mad-House was written it was also the Victorian Era. The Victorian Era was roughly between 1837-1901. These days there were few tests that actually determined whether someone was insane. In fact, in Bly’s story she is taken in for testing and paid very little attention to while the doctors go back and forth with one another. As well as having insane women in these asylums, women with dementia were also admitted into these institutions. Yet, the problems surrounding women during this time period did not only limit to the treatment of them in the asylums but at home as well. Women during this time had no rights and were expected to stay at home all day and be responsible for domestic duties. These duties are the same ones the nurses in the asylums were expected to do. For example, “cleaning and airing wards, scouring dishes, scrubbing floors, washing windows, and so on” (Monk). One could assume that perhaps the reason these nurses treated the patients so poorly was because they were upset with their duties as a woman and wanted more for themselves. Yet, instead of fighting for a change like Dorothea Dix did, these women and sometimes men took their frustrations, whatever they may be, out on the people they were supposed to be looking after. After all, “managing patients was a significant element of asylum work” (Monk) and it seems that there was no one there to hold these workers accountable. 

Nellie Bly’s story is directly related to sexism and the way women were treated during this time period. She is inspired to go in as a patient and see what is truly is like within the walls of these institutions. She discusses the treatment in these asylums and says that one could take a completely sane woman and treat them the way they do and within 2 months she will be a “mental and physical wreck” (Bly 293).  Bly is fighting for better treatment and better institutions for the women confined in these places, she wanted the world to know what it was like for these women that were admitted against their will. 

The emotional and verbal abuse shown throughout Ten Days in a Mad-House went to a variety of different extremes. There was a point in time in the story that Bly overheard an encounter between a patient and a nurse where the patient was fearful of being abused and the nurse responded with “there isn’t much fear of hurting you. Shut up, or you’ll get it worse” (Bly 287). An article called Working in the Asylum: Attendants to the Insane discusses how attendants are supposed to be required to ‘speak mildly, never in an angry tone” as well as “if there is a manner to interfere in, their manner should be gentle and calm” (Monk) but it is clear that this rule was not enforced in the institution Bly was in. In another instance Nellie Bly was arguing that the city paid these people to keep the institutions up to par and to treat the patients with kindness and the staff member said “well, you don’t need to expect any kindness here, for you won’t get it” (Bly 287). The treatment of these women in the story was unnecessary and cruel, yet no one was there to help them, or it didn’t seem to Bly and others that there was. Yet, Dorothea Dix was working to fix things and her “crusade for humane hospitals for the insane was reaching a climax” (Prison and Asylum Reform). It was important that someone be fighting for these women because according to Nellie Bly the doctors and staff of these hospitals were in no way helping these women get better. 

Not only were workers emotionally abusive but physically as well. In Nellie Bly’s story she says that if a patient didn’t listen immediately then at times “a shove and a push were administered, and often a slap on the ears” (Bly 285). There was an implication in the article Working in the Asylum: Attendants to the Insane, that the nurses and staff “might well mistreat patients if not prevented from doing so”, and Nellie Bly’s observations show that this implication was true. Sometimes when being bathed the patients were sent to bed with cold, wet hair and it was put up by being “pulled and jerked” (Bly 290). One last instance of physical abuse in Bly’s story was when Bly was looking onto an encounter which resulted in Miss Grupe (a nurse) “run her cold hands over a woman’s face and down inside the neck of her dress…laughing savagely, as did the other nurses” (Bly 295). In a different instance, the article Curing the Insane in New Orleans: The Failure of the “Temporary Insane Asylum” described some of the patients as “idiotic” and “imbecilic” (Vandal), which shows that their treatment was harsh and they were mistreated. It shows that there was no sense of companion between the patients and the doctors and staff of these asylums. 

The physical abuse in Bly’s story did seem to get more extreme as the story went on and as Bly’s time in the asylum became longer. At one point in the story, Bly talks about how these nurses made one of the patients being to cry. This crying could be caused by their insanity or the way they are being treated but Bly saw them begin to scold her and tell her to keep quiet. These nurses then slapped the patient in the face and choked her as well (Bly 297). Bly said she saw marks on the woman’s neck the rest of the day (Bly 297). It is ridiculous to think that there was no one in these institutions looking after the well-being of the women inside, no one to give them a voice. 

In these asylums, the women were confined in places of poor hygiene and on top of that, they were given very limited clothing. Bly discussed how little clothing and they were given and also said that sometimes their clothing was just thrown on the floor rather than being given to them (Bly 289). The halls that they were required to stand in were freezing and not what any woman or man should be forced to endure. Nothing about the treatment of the people in these asylums was humane or right. The doctors didn’t work to help these patients, instead they acted as though these people were more of a burden than something they were interested in. There should have been someone on the inside helping these women out, giving them an ounce of hope, whether they knew it was happening or not. 

In conclusion, Nellie Bly, Dorothea Dix, and others were right to make a push for new institutions and better atmospheres for these women. The story does confirm what was known about the historical era and time period in which it was written. There is not much contradiction between the articles found and the story by Nellie Bly. They both show a blatant disrespect of the people in asylums that were seeking help. 
