
When coming to conclusions about one’s character, it is important to view all aspects of the situation in order to form a logical opinion. During the Victorian Era, patriarchy went to the extent to which men were able to sentence women to a life trapped in a mental institution without proper diagnosis or treatments. The journalist and author of “Ten Days in a Madhouse,” Nellie Bly took action in order to expose the wrongful treatment of those living in insane asylums during the nineteenth century. Bly posed as insane in order to be admitted to the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. During her ten-day stay here, she experienced and reported the foul treatment and neglect that the insane were receiving from those in authority in the asylum. In the article “The History of Mental Illness: From Skull Drills to Happy Pills,” Allison M. Foerschner describes the history that the field of psychology had gone through in order to get to the treatments for mental illnesses used today. In the article “Victorian Women and Their Working Roles,” Kara L. Barrett writes of the women’s expected roles in the 1800’s. Women who left the stereotypical roles were alienated and treated as lesser workers as well as lesser women (Barrett 3). The articles by Barrett and Foerschner give an insight into the Victorian era by sharing that there was limited knowledge in the field of mental health as well as the fact that women were suppressed by men in the workforce; in association with “Ten Days in a Madhouse,” these articles allow the argument to be made that the nurses were justified in their actions toward the patients.

Mental illness and the treatments for the insane during the Victorian Era were rudimentary in the ways that the doctors went about diagnosing and working with those deemed insane. According to this article, during the time that Bly spent at the asylum there was little known about the proper treatment of the mentally insane and many “professionals” were unaware of the lack of treatment and possible harm that they were causing the patients (Foerschner 2). Early treatments of mental illness were centered around the idea that the illness was caused by an angry spirit or demonic possession (Foerschner 1). As a means of treatment, trephining was performed which was when one chipped a hole into the person’s skull that was suffering from mental illness in hopes of the evil spirit being released through the hole (Foerschner 1). A more biological approach during the Victorian Era lead to bloodletting, vomiting, purging, and the use of laxatives in order to balance the humors of the body (Foerschner 3). Though there was neglect in the field of psychology, there was a moral movement in the 1800’s in an attempt to change the conditions of mental asylums. Foerschner states, “Applied to asylum care, moral management focused on the mentally ill individual’s spiritual and moral development as well as the rehabilitation of their personal character to lessen their mental ailments” (Foerschner 2). Though it was a step in the right direction, this movement failed to continue through the years.  

Due to the limited knowledge of proper diagnosis and treatment, many people were wrongly sent to asylums and subject to neglect. As seen in “Ten Days in a Madhouse,” the diagnosis of patients was a shallow and un-thorough process. People were often sent to insane asylums for reasons such as physical disabilities, temperament, wives questioning their husbands, and even for being poor. The lack of knowledge and attention paid to the field of mental health during the Victorian Era effected the way society viewed those in mental institutions. There was such a stigma and amount of neglect towards those deemed insane by the doctors, nurses, and common people. The nurses in “Ten Days in a Madhouse” give the appearance of the antagonists of the story when in fact they were operating towards the patients as they had been taught by society and their training to act. The workers at the asylum could have been justifying their poor treatment of the women by the fact that they felt the insane did not deserve proper treatment or the neglect could be due to the fact that they did not know proper ways to treat the patients. 

Women during the Victorian Era were held to standards in which they had limited rights and were expected to revolve their lives around house work and caring for children (Barrett 1). When some women were put in situations in which they had to get a job in order to provide another salary for the family, they were discriminated against and not allowed many opportunities to better their situations (Barrett 4). As stated by Barrett, Wanda Fraiken Neff writes that “Classing women and children together as helpless creatures needing the protection of strong men, they were indignant at the knowledge that women had to support themselves, that they suffered degrading wrongs as working women” (Barrett 6). 

Being put in lesser positions at home, at work, and in society takes a toll on the mindset of a person. The nurses that worked at the Women’s Lunatic Asylum were placed in a job position where they had power over patients that were viewed by society as even lesser people than they. Given that they were put down by almost everyone around them, in a situation of power it is likely that they would take the chance they were given to feel significant and use it to their advantage. The feeling of power over another human would have an effect on the nurses in a way that they rarely get to feel. In going to work in positions of authority at the asylum, the nurses are able to leave the world or rejection and shame that society has provided for them. In regards to the neglect of the nurses in the asylums, Bly states “I shuddered to think how completely the insane were in the power of their keepers, and how one could weep and plead for release, and all of no avail, if the keepers were so minded.” Much like the patients of the asylum, the nurses were forced into the roles and stereotypes of women every day that they do not necessarily want to be in. Instead of connecting with the patients and applying a feeling of connectedness and sympathy, the frustration with the way that the nurses were treated as women could easily have been projected onto the patients and result in neglect and poor treatment. 

At first glance, the women who are the nurses of the Women’s Lunatic Asylum are viewed as one of the many negative aspects to the mental institution. After applying knowledge of the Victorian Era and the situations that many women were in during this time period, it becomes apparent that the nurses were justified in their actions towards the patients of the asylum. The knowledge that was available regarding mental health during this time was a primitive way of viewing mental insanity. The diagnosis of insanity was less than adequate causing many innocent people to be deemed insane and sent to asylums. The treatment provided in asylums at this time was not in accordance to the knowledge used in mental health today. These treatments were uncomfortable and often harmful to the patients but the institutions believed they were helping towards a cure. Along with the limited knowledge of mental health treatments, the nurses were rarely put in positions of authority during this age of society. As women, the nurses were oppressed, judged, and discriminated against by their husbands, male co-workers, and society. The opportunity to be in charge of a group of people is a stark contrast from what they experienced in their lives outside of work. The nurses would easily have been able to over react to the change of pace and take advantage of their roles of power. During this time period, women were oppressed their whole lives so it is possible that these women did not know how to properly handle having authority. The ways that women viewed people who had asserted their authority negatively over them was a shameful and dehumanizing view. This contributes to the ways in which the nurses exerted their power over the patients because this is how they viewed those who had authority over them. The knowledge of the time period in conjunction with the actions of the nurses in “Ten Days in a Madhouse” combine in order to form the argument that the nurses were justified in their actions towards the patients due to the limited knowledge of mental health treatments and the societal oppression of women.         
