In the nineteenth century, as well as the early twentieth century, there were many issues dealing with women’s mental and physical health. In Nellie Bly’s Ten Days in a Mad-House, she attacks this problem using an insider’s perspective. Because of the passion that Bly held for advocating women’s rights, she was inspired to move to New York City in 1887 and take her strong beliefs to the next level. She decided to pretend to be mentally insane in order to become admitted into the Women’s Lunatic Asylum which is located on Blackwell’s Island in New York. This plan of hers sparked an enormous change in society’s views about mental illness along with the treatments which the mentally ill had been receiving at the time. After spending ten days inside of the insane asylum, Bly became the author of Ten Days in a Mad-House, which followed her previous series which was published in the New York World. Because of Bly’s determination and very brave actions, she was able to change the way that the mentally ill were treated after a full investigation of the asylum. Previous to this shift change, however, there was very little awareness of how the human brain works and the treatment that it should receive. Due to the lack of advanced research in the realm of mental health during the nineteenth century, many women were misdiagnosed and provided with unjust treatment in insane asylums. 

Nellie Bly was, in fact, an extremely brave woman of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She possessed many strong beliefs about women’s rights due to her personal life experiences as well as the way that society was built in the world around her, which further allowed her to excel in her work with the goals that she had in mind. “Her work set a new standard to which others could aspire” (Beasley 1315). This led to other women moving forward and advancing in their own work and personal livelihood. However, there were still many improvements that needed to be made before women could feel equal to men and feel safe. Her mother had to go through the struggle of raising fifteen children on her own due to the death of Nellie’s father. Because of the fact that his death occurred so suddenly, Nellie’s mother was never able to legally receive the property in which they lived at the time. This was the first event which set off Bly to begin advocating for women’s rights in a more serious matter. She immediately began to dive into her investigation in order to shed light on the problems at hand. At this point in time, very little research was being done in the field of mental and physical well-being, especially in dealing with women specifically. Women were often automatically considered “unhealthy” without proper testing or evidence to back it up because of the fact that doctors would rely on their own “knowledge”, intuition, and assumptions to make decisions. On the other hand, “a ‘normal healthy man’ was equated with a ‘normal healthy individual’” (Bondi and Burman 8). This shows that not only were women treated unequally and unfairly, but they were also viewed as a completely different breed than men in some people’s eyes. Women were therefore viewed as being unfit for physical labor as well as intellectual work. This was a result of the new “ideas about women being prone to hysteria” because of the fact that they were being forced to become confined and domesticated (Bondi and Burman 8). People wanted women to strictly be inside of the house, which often extended the viewpoint that they were not fully a participant in society. Being separated from the working world almost solidified the perspective that women and men were not the same species. The concept of separate spheres played a large role in this unreasonable view of the female brain, which refers to the ideology that men and women differ by nature. This bias in the concept of gender roles did not sit well with Bly, and further inspired her fight for women’s rights as well as her book, Ten Days in a Mad-House. Her piece contains many elements of enormous importance when it comes to the topic of mental illness and insane asylums. The book shines a light on the harsh treatments that the inmates of insane asylums received, and on the harmful effects that the treatments had on them. Without Bly’s determination to amplify her concerns about these institutions, it would have taken much longer for any investigation to be done or for any change to be made. 

Because of the lack of research being done on the human brain and on mental health, many people of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were blind to just how harmful the treatments were for the mentally ill and the mentally insane. In Carla Yanni’s book, The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States, she discusses the many harsh and unhealthy conditions that women faced in mental institutions, and how these conditions could make even the most mentally stable women become insane. Women were often misdiagnosed when it came to mental health, and they were therefore deemed insane without proper testing. However, since scientists had not completed the proper research, society could not possibly be fully aware that inmates of these asylums were being mistreated. Yanni also goes in depth about the topic of the period of enlightenment in her book, and how it played a large part in shifting society’s views on mental health. When Enlightenment first began to emerge in history, many people were leery about its intentions in dealing with women’s rights. People did, however, begin to question things much more intensely and uniquely. “New conceptions of human society led to new questions about women’s role” (Taylor 266). As time went on, and as more ideas were thought of, women began to see many positive changes in their society. When people started questioning what was morally right and wrong, and what women should represent in the world, modifications began to take place. This idea of reform and free thinking led doctors and managers to begin making permanent changes to the quality of their mental institutions. Rather than immediately assuming that the majority of women were ‘crazy’, researchers began to think more critically about the mind and the life experiences of the individual before making any sort of diagnosis or opinion. “Enlightenment moral philosophy focused above all on the human personality” (Taylor 267). This concentration allowed the course for women’s rights to alter, giving society a completely new and positive outlook on women both physically and psychologically. Once these realizations began to arouse throughout the world, society as a whole was able to view mental health in women more accurately than they previously had. “It was in this discourse… that the most important changes in attitudes toward women occurred” (Taylor 267). This period was, indeed, very impactful for women. In addition, it proves that people at the time were not against women simply because of arrogance or hatred, but rather because of a lack of education in the field of psychology. Men had no possible way of correctly understanding the human brain, especially in females, until enlightenment thinkers began to seek out and discover more reliable information. Therefore, the doctors who worked in various mental institutions, such as the Women’s Insane Asylum on Blackwell’s Island, truly did not possess the psychological information that would be needed to diagnose women properly and accurately. Though the actions of the doctors and managers in these asylums were morally inequitable, they could not be changed until society came together to discover new ideas and fight for women’s rights. Being that Bly was surrounded by this while she was so focused on female rights, she was able to feed into this change and the enlightenment period, allowing her to possess even more inspiration in her career. Physically seeing adaptations occur only made Nellie more optimistic and more eager, which is why she ended up becoming so successful. 

It is clear that both Nellie Bly’s personal life experiences and society’s beliefs at the time played a large role in Bly’s book, Ten Days in a Mad-House. The author uses many rhetorical strategies and various styles of writing in order to show the detrimental conditions and treatments found in nineteenth century mental institutions. Instead of beginning the story in a mysterious way, she communicates to the reader immediately that she is choosing to be admitted into the insane asylum. This transfers Bly’s personal views towards the issue, and tells the reader that her fight to bring awareness to it is extremely important. If Bly were to simply tell the story about her experiences inside of the asylum, without first explaining why she was admitted to it, the reader might not receive the intended message of the piece as clearly. Not only is this helpful to someone reading Bly’s piece today, but especially to someone reading it at the time that she wrote it. “What is considered ‘normal’ or typical or acceptable ‘mental health’ remains unspecified and shrouded in mystery and assumption” (Bondi and Burman 7). The mysteries and assumptions that dealt with mental health were big key factors that Bly wanted to destroy due to the fact that society was much less aware of why women’s insane asylums were so horrific. She ties in many details dealing with these issues in order to get her point across. There is also a lot of dialogue used within Bly’s piece. This recurrent use of dialogue forces the reader to become more engaged in the reading. Rather than strictly reading narratives and descriptions of where the inmates had been staying, he or she is able to connect more to the individual characters in the text and understand their personal struggles. Without this strong connection between the characters and the reader, the message being exchanged would not be as meaningful or as powerful. It is evident that Bly’s goal was to create something that people would want to read, as well as something that would be worth reading. If she were to avoid her many rhetorical strategies, and plainly explain her thoughts, her book probably would not have attracted so much attention or appraisal. As a women’s rights advocate, she wanted to make her piece strong enough to catch the attention of the society around her and change their beliefs about women’s mental health. Bly adds in many negative adjectives and descriptions throughout her story to make it clear that the conditions in the institutions should not be acceptable. Once these issues were clearly addressed by the entirety of all men and women, change could finally be seen. “Revisionary ideas about women and gender relations were new theories of civilization” (Taylor 266). This change was not only based on women, but on the overall culture. 

In the nineteenth century, the misdiagnoses and treatments that took place in women’s insane asylums were evidently the result of a lack of mental health knowledge. Until society as a whole could view mental health in women with a proper understanding and a more open perspective, women were not able to receive the just treatment that they should have. Nellie Bly attacks this issue in her book, Ten Days in a Mad-House, in order to portray the unsanitary conditions and morally wrong conduct shown to the patients of these institutions. It is now perceptible that the key to creating a more advanced and moral society was and is to fight for a higher level of understanding. Without citizens’, such as Bly’s, courage and passion towards women’s rights issues, people would not have been able to discover what needed to change. Therefore, no change would have been made. Overall, a people must be open minded and willing to listen to the ideas and opinions of others in order to thrive. Equality is key to a successful society, which Nellie Bly clearly saw and understood. In being outspoken and eager towards this transformation, Bly was able to inspire the people around her to do the same, and to make a change for the better. 
