Controversy has always stirred when it comes to the equality of all human beings. From an early age we are taught what’s right and to be treat everyone equally. In past years, there has been much debate over treatment and care the mentally ill receive. Only recently has the medical community been able to accurately identify and treat many mental illnesses so in the past the treatment of those illnesses has been outdated and largely up to those responsible for the person to decide based off what they think is morally right or wrong. This is one of the many reasons care of the mentally ill has been such a controversy because everyone has varying levels of morality and because doctors often prescribed ineffective and harsh treatments. Another topic going hand in hand with the historical mistreatment of the mentally ill, is the mistreatment and inequality women endured in the past. Two texts touch on these issues, The Yellow Wallpaper and 10 Days in a Madhouse. Upon close examination of The Yellow Wallpaper and 10 Days in a Mad-House we can detect both correlating themes regarding gender inequality and varying viewpoints on the treatment of the mentally ill during the late 19th century. 

The two stories The Yellow Wallpaper and 10 Days in a Mad-House are first person narratives that were both written by female authors during the same time. The two authors; Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of The Yellow Wallpaper and Nellie Bly, author of 10 Days in a Mad-House share a lot in common with another outside from these texts. Gilman and Bly were important activists of early feminism, and utilized the pen to heighten awareness and voice their opinions about gender inequality. Both women are also very overlooked and underrated figures in feminism that were very dedicated to their cause and paved the way for later feminists(). Both spent a lot of time and effort towards specific issues regarding gender rights and equality. Bly wrote many pieces for the Pittsburgh Dispatch's "Quiet Observer” and ‘The New York Journal” which advocated social change and better rights for women about specific issues which plagued this time. She was so committed to her cause that she admitted herself into an insane asylum in order to investigate and obtain a firsthand account of the treatment women deemed “mentally insane” endured and to receive the recognition which bolstered the feminist movement. When Gilman wasn’t writing various feministic and socialistic works, she was organizing various social reform movements and was even a political representative for the suffrage movement. In their early years both authors also experienced incredible hardship from a lack of a father. Bly’s biological father died when she was 6, which forced the family to auction their home and caused her mother to hastily enter an abusive relationship with her stepfather. Gilman also lost her father early on when he abandoned her mother during pregnancy which left them poor and struggling to make ends meet. During this time, men were viewed as the provider and head of the family so an absence of a father head often resulted in hardship for the rest of the family. So in a sense, both authors had similar situations which was the result of an unequal financial and societal view of women as both struggled to support themselves and their families. The hardships in the early life of both of these authors molded them into the activist they became and appears evident that it greatly influenced them in their feministic writings. 

The texts these women wrote are arguably the most relevant pieces of literature regarding the mistreatment of women and their mental illnesses. Both narratives really puts a spotlight on the lack of care for the mentally ill. However, the two texts differ in that 10 Days in a Madhouse is an investigative record of the harsh treatments Bly experienced in a mental institution while The Yellow Wallpaper is a story which cunningly displays the attitudes of society during this time towards women through a narrative of an oppressed mentally insane woman. Abuse and neglect of institutionalized patients is uncovered in 10 Days in a Madhouse, and Bly is quoted as saying the “nurses seemed to find a great deal of amusement in teasing [a] harmless [old woman]”. She records her dealings there in a similar fashion that one might use to describe cattle on a dairy farm. Bly’s story reveals how the castoffs in society were forced in mental institutions and how they were a haven to some extent to keep undesirables away from the mainstream population. Of all the harsh conditions she experienced, one of the most dreaded thing she repeatedly describes was rancid food. She also goes on to reveal the unfit workers there in the text when she openly questions the qualifications of those in charge of handling the patients. The Yellow Wallpaper is a story involving an “insane” woman which doesn’t primarily aim towards exposing the harsh treatment towards the mentally ill, but more so aims towards exposing flaws in the way women were viewed and treated at the time. Evidence of this can be seen when the main characters husband belittles her illness and controls her everyday life. She also goes on to describe how women were viewed as fragile and required different treatment from men. Gilman provides more evidence of the lack of gender equality when she writes how it was common for men to choose the treatment their wives received and how that can be a dangerous thing. It was works such as these which raised social awareness of the treatment mentally ill women received and the underlying issues women dealt with that were lesser known in the mainstream consciousness of America, or many other places in the world during this time.

Thorough analysis of the authors and these two texts allows us to observe themes oppression towards women and the mentally insane. By looking at the similarities we can see how attitudes towards women during this time are very different from what they are now. By looking at the differences and the factual accounts of the treatment towards the mentally ill we can see ineffective and harsh care which due to misconceptions at the time. This becomes evident that the time period displayed in the texts was less progressive and there was a strong oppression of women that the effects of still linger to this day. This was an era of strong political and social unrest in due to the feminist movement, and the passages I am comparing no doubt had a tangible influence on the eventual success of it by putting it in the national spotlight.  Analyzing these texts together allows the reader to gain a firmer understanding of the kind of prejudice that were present in the treatment of women as a whole, as well as how prejudiced and ineffective the treatment methods of the time were.  