
When taking a closer look at the time period when Nellie Bly wrote, “Ten Days in a Mad-House” it changes the perspective of the piece. When the reader has knowledge about the Nellie Bly and the views about mental health during the nineteenth century, the reader can view the story in a more complex way. These articles will include information about the cultural and historical aspects during that time period as well as information about the authors life. The first journal, “Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist” is going to take a close look into the life of Nellie Bly, rebel and author of “Ten Days in a Mad-House”. The second journal, “Idiots, Infants, and the Insane” explains that many people are being treated as mentally ill and unstable when in reality being admitted into a mental institution is not crucial to their well-being. Most of the patients admitted into insane asylums are not actually crazy, including Blackwell’s, the asylum where Bly was admitted. The third journal, “The Linear Plan for Insane Asylums in the United States before 1866” argues that mental institutions are essential to the treatment of those who are truly mentally insane. Then, in “Ten Days in a Madhouse: The Woman Who Got Herself Committed”, Bill DeMain explains how after Bly’s story was published she positively impacted her culture and had a significant effect on the improvement of mental institutions. These sources provide additional insight and knowledge about the topic at hand, mental institutions, they help further support Nellie Bly’s story, “Ten Days in a Mad-House” and represent the culture around her at the time and how she made an impact on it.

Brooke Kroeger, writes a riveting review, “Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist” and takes a closer look into the life of Nellie Bly author of “Ten Days in a Mad-House”. Bly was not only considered an author but she was considered a reporter and a detective as well. Bly does not fit the conventions of her time, she was a thrill-seeker. Bly was an important figure head during this time period because she took on a huge challenge – something that nobody else would ever even imagine doing. She committed herself into a mental institution with no grantee of being released. Bly put herself directly into the field with no plan of escape – all she had was hope that one day she would get out. When she arrived one woman made a remark that, “we have been sent here we will have to be quiet until we find some means of escape” (Bly, 281). The risks Bly took on while in the mad house included asking for better treatment, for example she talked to Dr. Ingram about getting a more efficient door lock system for the facility because if a fire occurred all the patients would be trapped in their rooms and it would be almost impossible for the nurses to unlock each individual door (Bly, 289). Also, Bly consistently stood up for what she believed even though the nurses threatened them, Bly explains she, “asked some of them to tell how they were suffering from the cold and insufficiency of clothing, but they replied that the nurse would beat them if they told” (Bly. 293). Fear was instilled among the patients. Bly put herself at risk in order to write her story she endured a lot of harsh treatment, for example, when she was ordered to undress down to nothing and bathe in an ice-cold tub while all the other women watched (Bly, 286). However, Bly was extremely lucky and ten days after her admittance she was released. She went against all traditions of her time and put her life at risk in order to get an inside look of an insane asylum. She was an adventurer and an inspiration to all women. She demonstrates what is considered to be stunt journalism. She did plenty of investigative work that brought a whole new perspective on insane asylums. The information Kroger provides changes the perspective on the narrative of the story because it gives a more holistic view of the author, Nellie Bly. It is important to know this specific cultural background when reading and interpreting the story because when knowledgeable about an author’s life it changes the way the reader views the text. Nellie Bly represented women’s empowerment and daredevil techniques with her research. 

T. Szasz argues in the journal, “Idiots, Infants, and the Insane”, that instead of improving and building more psychiatric facilities, it would be more efficient if doctors cut down on the number of people they diagnose as mentally ill. This is evident when Bly has an exchange of words with one of the nurses, Bly says, “’But the city pays to keep these places up,’ I urged, ‘and pays people to be kind to the unfortunates brought here.’” The nurse responds, ‘Well, you don’t need to expect any kindness here, for you won’t get it’” (Bly, 287). Those committed involuntarily to treatment are typically looked upon as incompetent even though they are indeed competent. Because of the amount of people being misdiagnosed as mentally ill they are receiving treatment that is not necessary or crucial to their overall health. Evident in the story, the conditions of the mental institution were extremely poor. Through Bly’s description of what it was like, it is obvious that the government was not giving enough funding or attention to mental institutions. Also, it would be more beneficial if they were more careful about who they diagnosed as mentally ill. Szasz argues that the only goal society should have in regards to mental health care is to decrease the number of person being treated as mentally ill. However, more mental health services are being built and becoming available to the public. This goal can’t be attained unless the ideas that someone ‘has’ a mental illness and mental illness is a disease are removed. The research provided by this journal supports the argument that many patients were being misdiagnosed as mentally insane and were treated as unfit. This is evident in the story, “Ten Days in a Mad-House” because majority of the women were not actually mentally ill. Bly argues this when she says, “I would like the expert physicians who are condemning me for my action, which has proven their ability, to take a perfectly sane and healthy woman, shut her up and make her sit from 6 A. M. until 8 P.M. on straight-back benches, do not allow her to talk or move during these hours, give her no reading and let her know nothing of the world or its doings, giver her bad good and harsh treatment, and see how long it will take to make her insane” (Bly, 293). This changes the perspective on the narrative of the story because if those that were truly insane received the help necessary they would have a higher probability of living a healthier life. Majority of the women that were admitted to Blackwell’s were not truly insane but having to deal with the harsh treatment and abuse they endured while in the institution, overtime it increased their likelihood of becoming mentally unstable. If the number of people being treated as mentally insane cut down, then the doctors would be able to focus on those that actually needed the treatment. And the people that were wrongfully committed to the insane asylums would be able to live freely once again.

In the journal, “The Linear Plan for Insane Asylums in the United States before 1866” Carla Yanni provides information about psychiatrists in the nineteenth-century. She argues that they believed about 80 percent of insanity cases were curable if treated early on, outside of a home setting, and in carefully planned and built structures (Yanni, 29). In this journal, Carla Yanni argues that psychiatrist believed the structure of a building was essential to the patients well-being. She claims it is “one of the most powerful tools for the treatment of insanity” (Yanni, 29). The research provided in this journal changes the perspective on the narrative of the story because all the women in “Ten Days in a Mad-House” were living in a mental institution and were receiving treatment outside of their homes. Most of the women didn’t belong there and in reality it was harmful to their health. The conditions the patients in Blackwell’s dealt with were unfair and disgusting. Bly notes that she could hardly bare to eat the food and once found a spider in her slice of bread, she could not sleep because of the “unlocking of the heavy door, [the nurses] loud talking, and heavy tread” (Bly, 288). Many of the living conditions were unsanitary, for example they were required to share the same towels with each other. If a patient genuinely suffers from intense mental disorders and because of it they are incapable of going through the simple functions of daily life then a mental institution would be beneficial to their health. However, the living conditions at Blackwell’s were so horrible that anyone would go insane living there. In the story, they were not receiving treatment from home - they were in a mental institution where the doctors legitimately believed being there would help them and they would get better. It is important to know this specific historical background when reading the story because this journal argues that “architecture shapes behavior” and was anticipated to provide a solution and cure mental disease (Yanni, 29). Most of the women in “Ten Days in a Mad-House” were not legitimately insane and they were completely adequate to take care of themselves. They were fully capable of living life to a normal degree even though they struggled with forms of depression and anxiety. Today, those things are exceptionally common- basically everyone experiences them at some point in their lives. But back then, it was not as common so they didn’t know what to do and just began committing people to the asylums. There is a difference between struggling with a mental disorder and it completely handicapping a person from living their life. For example, in the story most of the women were capable of taking care of themselves except those that Bly described as, “chattering away to herself and chuckling in a manner which seemed to me fiendish” probably needed to be in the mental facility. However, a lot of the times being in the mental hospital did cause people to go even crazier. 

Bill DeMain’s article, "Ten Days in a Madhouse: The Woman Who Got Herself Committed" explains that Nellie Bly’s Ten Days in a Madhouse exposed the truth behind what really happened in Blackwell’s insane asylum and she helped impact the culture around her by bringing reform to the asylum. She shares her experiences about brutality and patient abuse. Bly explains the abuse when she describes a situation she witnessed between another patient and the nurses, “they pounced upon her and slapped her face and knocked her head in a lively fashion. This made the poor creature cry the more, and so they choked her” (Bly, 297). During this time period, it was unconventional for a woman to work on something outside a newspaper article and to work on an investigative piece. In preparation for her big entrance into the madhouse Bly started wearing second-hand clothes, stopped bathing, stopped brushing her teeth, and started practicing her act in the mirror. Getting into the madhouse seemed pretty simple because the doctors barely questioned her craziness. Bly was hauled off by police after putting on a perform and she was taken to a psychiatric ward where she was diagnosed as “delusional and insane” (DeMain, "Ten Days in a Madhouse: The Woman Who Got Herself Committed"). Bly had everyone tricked and was hauled off to Blackwell’s. DeMain explains that Blackwell’s was “opened as America’s first municipal mental hospital in 1839… [and] was meant to be a state-of-the-art institution committed to moral, humane rehabilitation of its patients. But when funding got cut, the progressive plans went out the window. It ended up as a scary asylum, staffed in part by inmates of a nearby penitentiary” (DeMain). Bly claimed that once she arrived she started acting more normal and dropped the crazy act but they continued to believe she was crazy. However, one of the doctors made a comment about Bly and said, “that [her] pulse and eyes were not that of an insane girl, but Superintendent Dent assured him that in cases such as [hers] such tests failed. After watching me for awhile he said my face was the brightest he had ever seen for a lunatic” (Bly, 294). A gentleman Bly had known for years was at the insane asylum and she asked him not to blow her cover. He respected her wishes but a few days later her release from the asylum was arranged. Within a few days after she was released, she became a star journalist and people heard her story across the country. The doctors that she fooled became very apologetic and defensive and gave plenty of excuses (DeMain). Because of Bly the city made it a priority to push along the plans of increasing the budget for the asylums. When she returned to Blackwell’s things seemed to improve a significant amount because of her courage to expose the truth. DeMain explains that, “many of the abuses she reported had been corrected: the food services and sanitary conditions were improved, the foreign patients had been transferred, and the tyrannical nurses had disappeared” (DeMain). Bly achieved what she set out to do. 

All of these sources give the reader more information and a stronger awareness about insane asylums and the mentally ill. These journals relate to Nellie Bly’s story, “Ten Days in a Mad-House” and help further support the point she is trying to get across - that not all that are committed are legitimately insane. All these journals add a different perspective when reading her story, they provide research and further knowledge on the subject of mental illness. With the information the research provided by these journals many arguments are made. The research changes the perspective on the narrative of the story because it shows how Nellie Bly’s culture was impacted by her courage. Knowing specific historical or cultural backgrounds while reading the story is important as well because the culture around Bly impacted her work. In her story, Nellie Bly demonstrates that she is a daredevil and she fights for what she believes in and gives other women the courage to do the same. 
