In this paper, I will discuss how Two articles I have found on the internet had influenced and changed the way I interpret the short story “10 Days In a Mad House” by Nellie Bly. “The Mellage Trial and the Politics of Insane Asylums in Wihelmine Germany” by Ann Goldberg and “the architecture of madness: insane asylums in the United States” by Carla Yanni are Two articles that talk about the way insane asylums were shaped in the 19th century. Ann Goldbergs article gives the reader a firsthand experience of how people were treated in insane asylums and specific things they had to do. Carla Yannis article is a little different though because it mainly focuses on the architecture of the insane asylums and how the architecture of the asylums in the 1800s was meant to have a positive impact on the mental health of the patients. Both articles give me a better understanding for the reading DIMH and can supply the reader with different types of information about the way insane asylums functioned and the way they were structured in the 1800s. All three of these texts help show the reader the flaws that existed in the methods used by insane asylums, not only in America but all around the world.  

In “The Mellage Trial and the Politics of Insane Asylums in Wihelmine Germany” Ann Goldberg discusses the harsh conditions and the abusive behavior that a priest named Alexander Forbes had experienced inside the German insane asylum Mariaburg. Mellage went through a lot of legal trouble with the state and the catholic church for exposing the truths about the insane asylums and became a celebrity after releasing her book. The press constantly where following Mellage to keep up with the progress of the Trial. Forbes was freed from the asylum by Heinrich Mellage, and after Forbes told Mellage his story Mellage decided to write a book about the harsh and unbelievable conditions that Forbes had went through. Mellages book got across to the people of Berlin and thus they all turned against the state. This angered the state and made them go against Mellage and his plan to expose Mariaburgs corruption. Mellage later talks about the specific details of what Forbes had went through in the asylum. Mellage describes a specific time where the mentally ill people in the hospital would have their heads repeatedly dunked under freezing cold water. After Mellage went through a seven-day trial the conclusion was that Mariaburg was shut down and all mental asylums in Berlin had to be inspected to see whether they were supplying their patients with the right medicine and treated them the right way. 

“The Mellage Trial and the Politics of Insane Asylums in Wihelmine Germany” by Ann Goldberg is significant to the short story “Ten Days In a Mad House” by Nellie Bly because it is a perfect example of what Nellie Bly had gone through. Nellie Bly’s story focuses primarily on Bly’s feeling of being stuck in a corrupt insane asylum and the specific details of what was done to her. Even though Goldberg’s article still talks about how harsh the living conditions were in insane asylums it still differs from Nelllie Blys story because most the article talks about what the consequences were for exposing these horrible corrupt asylums Mellage had to fight a long hard trial with the state before she was finally proven not guilty. Ann Goldberg’s article is significant because of the information it supplies on how insane asylum patients were treated and what they went through. Not only does Goldbergs article talk about how patients had been treated but it also shows that speaking out against asylums in the 1800s was not something that the state took lightly. “The Mellage Trial and the Politics of insane Asylums in Wihelmine Germany” shows the courage and empathy Nellie Bly had for exposing asylums to the media and how she was willing to risk her own freedom to help the patients that were stuck inside of the women’s lunatic asylum.  It’s important to have the information from this article before reading “Ten Day In a Mad House” as it shows the flaws that existed in insane asylums from a global stand point in the 1800s. Forbes “was slapped with a liable law suit, the charges bought jointly by the state and the Mariaburg asylum”. If someone just read 10 days in mad house without reading “The Mellage Trial and the Politics of insane Asylums in Wihelmine Germany” they wouldn’t take into consideration how brave Bly was for doing what she did, it also shows that this isn’t a problem that exists only in New York and that corrupt insane asylums was a global problem in the 1800s. 

“The Architecture of Madness: insane asylums in the United States” by Carla Yanni talks about how doctors in the 1800s believed that “much of the insanity exhibited by Americans at that time was curable with the help of specially designed buildings”. Insane asylums started being built a lot more in the 1800s because the demand for them was so high. After the civil war the average insane asylum went from having 250 people to having 600 thus larger asylums where needed. People working these asylums didn’t do much to help the patients because they figured that they would simply just get better by being surrounded by nice architecture. By the 20th century, doctors realized that none of the mentally ill patients had been healed and that nice architecture was not the best way to heal the mentally ill. To get better doctors finally concluded that they were going to need to properly medicate their patients, and shift their focus from architecture to medicine. Throughout the entire 19th century doctors where misled and thus the mentally insane did not get the right care that they needed.

Carla yannis article helps show the reader that Insane asylums and doctors didn’t know what they were doing in the 1800s and their methods for treating the mentally ill were pointless. Throughout the whole 1800s it was believed that the architecture was what would help the mentally ill become sane. This relates to 10 days in a mad house because it supports the idea that the people that worked in the asylum that Nellie Bly attended clearly didn’t know what they were doing and had no idea of what the right methods where to treat people who were mentally ill, they truly believed that by placing people in insane asylums that where nicely designed they would simply just become healthier without giving them any medical or physical aid. In 10 days in a mad house Bly emphasizes how the people that where working in these asylums had no idea what they were doing and that the mentally ill where making no progress in getting better. In the beginning of this short story Bly explains how “the wagon was rapidly driven through the beautiful lawns up to the asylum.” This relates directly to Yannis article because it shows how the asylum took time to work on making the ambiance nice. 

In the short story 10 days in a mad house Bly describes a specific scenario that happened to her where she forced to bath in a freezing bath. “My teeth chattered and my limbs were goose-fleshed and blue with cold. Suddenly I got, one after the other, three buckets of water over my head-ice-cold cold water, too- into my eyes, my nose and my mouth. I think I experienced some of the sensations of a drowning person as they dragged me, gasping, shivering and quaking, from the tub. For once I did look insane”. On page 15 of “The Mellage Trial and the Politics of Insane Asylums in Wihelmine Germany” Ann Goldberg describes a similar scenario where she says the “the patient was stripped and bound and his head was dunked again and again”. This shows how the treatment of patients was a problem all around the world and wasn’t something that was only occurring in the asylum that Nellie Bly had attended. This passage relates to the architecture of madness because it emphasizes the idea that insane asylums where not using the right methods to cure their patients. Doctors and workers at these asylums in the 19th century had no knowledge of what was best for their patients and thus patients were treated horribly and often abused. 
