When first reading the story Ten Days in a Madhouse by Nellie Bly and “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, it might seem as though they are completely different, as if there can be no comparison made between them whatsoever. However, after diving deeper into them and looking at the background and true meanings of both of the texts, some very obvious similarities come to play. Although the overall plot of the stories is radically different, both of them have to do with one main thing: the insane. Not only that, but how these views on insanity during the 1800’s relate to each other.

In the story Ten Days in a Madhouse, the narrator, Nellie Bly, purposely gets herself committed to a mental institution for the sole reason of documenting everything that happened to her so she can try and help improve the conditions of the asylum. Although Bly wasn’t truly insane and everything she did to be put in the asylum was an act, she documents many things about the insane people that she encounters from being in there. According to an article written about Bly, titled “Ten Days at the Mad-House: How Nellie Bly Posed as Insane in 1887 in Her  Brave Exposé of Asylum Abuse”, it is explained how “even a sane person living under the conditions that those women had to live under could go completely crazy too” (“Ten Days at the Mad-House”) and act ways/do things they never normally would’ve. In relation to that, in the story, Bly states that “the insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island is a human rat trap. It is easy to get in, but once there it is impossible to get out” (Bly ). By saying this, she seems to be referring to the fact that even if you aren’t completely insane, being there will make you that way and lead to you spending a lot longer time there than you should. Nellie Bly says, “What a mysterious thing madness is. I have watched patients who lips are forever sealed in a perpetual silence. They live, breathe, eat; the human form is there, but that something, which the body can live without, but which cannot exist without the body, was missing” (Bly), meaning that insanity does crazy things to people; it will take perfectly normal people and turn them into someone they are not. This is what Nellie Bly experienced during those ten days in the madhouse, not through herself, but through the people around her. Fortunately, it did not change her, but witnessing it firsthand definitely put things into perspective for her.

In the story “The Tell Tale Heart”, the narrator spends the majority of the text trying to convince the readers of his sanity, while also describing the murder of an old man that he committed, whom he calls “vulture-eye”. According to an article, also titled “The Tell Tale Heart” it is stated that even though the narrator is “denying his insanity throughout the entire story, it is very clear that he truly is insane” (“The Tell Tale Heart”) when reminded that he killed an old man for the sole purpose of ridding himself of the man’s “vulture-eye” forever. He says. “And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the sense? –now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well, too. It was the beating of the old man’s heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage” (Poe). These few sentences from the main character show very clearly how truly insane he is. He speaks of a sound he hears repeatedly that is “stimulating himself into courage”, the sound being the old man’s heartbeat. He hints at how bothersome the noise is and how hearing it constantly is making him very mad. These are things that normal people do not usually get bothered by, so to have him come out and say that without a problem clearly shows the insanity that is building up inside of him. The end result of the story proves his insanity because ultimately, he ends up murdering the man whom he was bothered so much by from his heartbeat and his “vulture eye”. Although it seems nothing in particular drove the murderer into sanity and he was insane from the beginning, it still shows that with that insanity building up inside of him, it can take control over someone and have them do something that you would have never thought possible from the beginning.

In comparison to these two stories, it is very easy to relate the insanity that is highly present in both texts. Both stories show what insanity does to a person and how it can affect them in the long-run. In Ten Days in a Madhouse, the insanity isn’t present in the narrator, but it is still present in just about every other character. In The Tell Tale Heart, the insanity is very present in the main character, which is why he ended up doing what he did. Another comparison that can be made between these two stories is the way they were written, and who told both of the stories. The main character in both texts is also the narrator, which is helpful in that it gives the reader more insight into what is going on through the main characters’ heads. Had the narrator been someone else in Ten Days in a Madhouse, the readers probably would’ve gotten more information about true insanity inside the other characters. Had the narrator been someone else in “The Tell Tale Heart”, the readers probably would’ve gotten less information about the insanity within the murderer, and more information about the old man who was referred to as “vulture eye”. Another thing to look into with these stories is the fact that since they were written in the time period that they were written in, around the 1800’s, it is important to realize that there was no true way to diagnose people with mental illnesses during that time. Anything anyone did could have made them subject to being crazy, and it was so easy to be considered that. Nowadays, we have plenty of technology and plenty of methods that help us diagnose illnesses correctly, but back in the day, that was not a luxury that people had. Knowing these we realize just how different things are and how much things have advanced in the medical field, allowing us to take the appropriate measures when it comes to dealing with the mentally insane. Along with other comparisons made, the most obvious one, as stated before, is definitely the madness seen in many of the characters in both texts, which truly makes these texts what they are.

Although Ten Days in a Madhouse and “The Tell Tale Heart” can’t be perfectly compared, there are definitely some similarities within these two texts that make them at least somewhat relatable, with the comparison of insanity during the 1800’s. The points mentioned go hand in hand with each other, allowing these stories to be similar in the sense that they deal with just about the same thing. Even though the setting and the overall ending of the stories are different, the general theme of insanity is what makes these stories comparable.
