“Ten Days in a Madhouse” by Nellie Bly is a fictional story about the abuse Nellie Brown witnessed in a mental asylum. This story was an experiment where Nellie Brown posed as a patient to truly see the abuse and mistreatment that patients encounter during their time in a mental asylum.  Nellie Bly was able to thoroughly characterize the female patients in “Ten Days in a Madhouse” due to the strong background that women are more vulnerable to mental illnesses. The stereotypes of women and the way they express fear and sadness also contributed to the way they were treated in mental asylums. Many factors and social aspects of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s affected women. Mental illness and cultural responses to mental illness strongly affect literature. Based on the stereotypes of women and their association with mental illness, Nellie Bly was able to more strongly portray female characters with mental illnesses such as the ones in “Ten Days in a Madhouse”. Cultural events, such as the way women were treated during this time period, also had an influence on literature. The background knowledge of mental illnesses and stereotypes of women heavily influences literature such as Nellie Bly’s “Ten Days in a Madhouse”. 

The mentally ill patients in “Ten Days in a Madhouse” are all females. The women suffer from different mental illness and are often abused. Nellie Bly was able to easily portray these female characters with mental illnesses due to the vulnerability of women and the background knowledge of their ties to mental illnesses. These patients show fear caused by their caregivers. “They dragged her out to the closet, and I heard her terrified cries hush into smothered ones” (Bly 297). Nellie Brown describes the sound of the caregivers dragging another woman and abusing her until her cries went silent. This woman was taken into a closet and never seen again. Being able to create this sense of fear in patients in mental asylums is a sign of power and superiority to the ill women. There are many gender stereotypes labeling women as unstable and emotional. Men expect women to be more emotional and sensitive simply because they are females. “Women are sensitive, they over think every little thing and they care way more than they should, but that’s what makes their love so strong” (Magaldi 2015). Since women have a greater emotional reactivity, they are more likely to suffer from mental illnesses. Women are more susceptible to depression, anxiety, personality disorders, and eating disorders (Wenegrat 1996). Females are more paranoid and vulnerable to becoming scared based on what they have experiences or witnessed. Studies have shown that women report a greater amount of sadness and emotional behavior then men. 

Nellie Brown expresses fear in the caregivers’ ethical behaviors. Nellie describes that she fears her nurses. “After they had gotten all the amusement out of her they wanted and she was crying, they began to scold and tell her to keep quiet” (Bly 297).  Nellie believes that her nurses abuse their patients for their own pleasure and are selfish. “‘But you know positively that they would not wait to do that’, I said, and these women would burn to death’” (Bly 288). Nellie was terrified that the nurses would forget to save the patients in the case of an emergency such as a fire. After she expresses this fear to her doctor, he tells her that the nurses would never harm the patients. The nurses in “Ten Days in a Madhouse” used physical abuse as a way to force the patients to behave in the way that they wanted. The truthfully disturbing care given by the nurses was common in the 1800’s. Nurses in normal health care professions are often caring and nurturing. However, nurses and doctors in mental asylums are reported as being abusive to them patients. Abusive caregivers that are reported by mentally ill patients are overlooked because the patient is not able to be honest about their care. These caregivers are also ignored because this abuse seems “normal” to these patients (Abrahams et al 1998). 

The women in “Ten Days in a Madhouse” were also deprived of the essential needs to properly take care of themselves. “We numbered forty-five patients in Hall 6, and were sent to the bathroom, where there were two coarse towels” (Bly 289). These women were unable to obtain proper hygiene because the mental asylum did not have enough materials for the amount of patients. Patients also had little amount of clothing. Along with the lack of supplies in “Ten Days in a Madhouse”, there was also a lack of proper nutrition. 

“Placed close together all along the tables were large dressing-bowls filled 

with a pinkish-looking stuff which the patients called tea. By each bowl 

was laid a piece of bread, cut thick and buttered. A small saucer 

containing five prunes accompanied the bread” (Bly 285).

Nellie Brown had to force herself to eat the meals that were provided for her or she would have starved to death. Many patients in mental asylums are deprived of full meals. Patients often go days or weeks without eating or drinking anything substantial. Mental asylums in the 1800’s had the reputation of bad care and being under developed as they were paid for and supplied by the government. Women were highly lacking the proper items for taking care of themselves in these mental asylums.

The patients in “Ten Days in a Madhouse” had a routine day forced upon them by the caregivers. “People in the world can never imagine the length of days to those in asylums. They seemed never ending, and we welcomed any event that might give us something to think about as well as talk of” (Bly 296). The women’s daily routine consisted of waking up, eating, cleaning, bathing, sitting, and being abused. The lifestyle of women during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s contributed to mental illnesses in women being greater than in men. Women during the late 1800’s lived routinely structured lives which contributed to why the patients lived a routine lifestyle each day. These women in the 1800’s were seen as inferior and powerless, especially the patients. The nurses had the power to force the patients to do the routine tasks they wanted done. Since women were living routine lives, they often got bored and lonely causing depression. 

Through the stereotypes and social expectations of women and mental asylums in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, “Ten Days in a Madhouse” was able to portray the female patient roles and the abusive caregiver roles. Stereotypes, such as women being more emotional and hypersensitive, gave Nelly Bly a way to create these mentally ill female characters and correctly show their characteristics. Even though “Ten Days in a Madhouse” is a fictional story of Nellie Brown exploring a mental asylum, her story portrays the undesirable truth behind what really occurs in mental asylums. Many women were abused during this time physically, emotionally, and mentally. Mental asylums during this time were also under established, which caused patients to be abused through the lack of proper necessities and materials to live a healthy and safe lifestyle. Many cultural changes and events are able to influence literature by providing background knowledge that informs the writers on how to properly create a story based on cultural and historical events. 
