When Nellie Bly’s father died suddenly, her mother had no legal claim to his estate and struggled to support fifteen children, which changed Bly’s views about women’s rights. In 1887, Bly faked her insanity in order to enter into the Women’s Lunatic Asylum. She was a member of this asylum for ten days and documented them into her first book, Ten Days in a Mad-House. In early America, mental illness was generally thought to be caused by a moral or spiritual failing. Family members originally cared for the mentally ill, but once the cases escalated, they would end up being treated in almshouses or jails. By 1890, every state had built one or more publicly supported mental hospitals, which all expanded in size as the population of the ill increased (U.S National Library of Medicine). In the article, “The History of Mental Illness: From Skull Drills to Happy Pills” Allison M. Foerschner explains that in early history women with mental illness were treated with inhumane treatment rather than treatments used today to actually help an illness. In history, women who were subjected to insanity were not given a chance to prove themselves otherwise, they faced violence, and all lived in terrible conditions. 

One of the many discoveries Bly discovered through out her ten days of being held in the asylum is that not all of the women who were there needed to be there. In earlier times, women were not given the chance to prove whether they were actually mentally ill or not. Allison M. Foerschner states in her article that women were placed into an asylum “for the sake of lifting the burden off of ashamed families and preventing any possible disturbance in the community.” Early on in the excerpt of her book, Bly explains multiple situations in which the woman she is talking to seems perfectly normal, but has been placed into the asylum for the wrong reasons. After speaking to a girl who explained to Bly her situation and how she should not need to be in the asylum, Bly states “I determined then and there that I would try by every means to make my mission of benefit to my suffering sisters; that I would show how they are committed without ample trial” (2). During the time Bly worked on this book, women had little rights and close to no say in their everyday lives, let alone the decisions about their insanity. If a family member or a husband believed the woman was ill, then she would be placed into a hospital with no say. Even though it still slightly applies to today, women were always expected to cook, clean, and take care of the children. So, if the husband didn’t think his wife was acting in a mannerly order then he had the right to send her to an asylum. In history, asylums were not facilities aimed with the purpose of curing mental illnesses, but rather a place where the mentally ill are abandoned by relatives. 

Another discovery Bly found within her ten days of being in the asylum is that violence was the main form of “treatment” used. None of the things that the nurses did to the patients seem as though they could truly “cure” them. The women in this asylum were not so much there for treatment, but rather there because they were put there. It is very simple to realize through out the story that the ones working in the hospital did not truly care for the women. For example, when Bly had a meeting with the assistant superintendent about the treatment the women were receiving, one of the other workers warned her and threatened her so she wouldn’t do it again. Bly realized that most of the nurses in the asylum found amusement out of harassing and humiliating patients. At the end of this excerpt, Bly explains a situation in which a patient was yelling and crying after being teased by the nurses because she wanted to go home. She was placed in the “closet” and as she continuously cried the nurses scolded her, slapped her, knocked her head, and even chocked her. She was then dragged out of the closet in tears and went the rest of the day with finger marks around her neck (Bly 17). In history, shock therapy was used to treat the ill along with violence. Shock therapy was used in a way where patients were dunked in either hot or cold water, which supposedly “shocks” their minds back into a normal state. In order for the mentally ill to be cured, they need to choose rationality over insanity, and to do so, “blistering, physical restraints, threats, and straitjackets were employed” (Allison M. Foerschner). Both examples in Bly’s Ten Days in a Mad-House and Allison M. Foerschner’s article, lead to the idea that people used to believe that violence is more likely to cure the mentally ill rather than suitable treatments. 

Lastly, women were not only forced upon with violence, but also with horrible living conditions. Bly gives many horrifying examples of their living conditions including her experiences of: eating, bathing, and sleeping. In Bly’s “My First Supper” chapter she explains the terrible accommodations and food provided by the asylum. The patients are given a bowl of tea that tastes like copper and a piece of buttered bread that would taste better if it were unbuttered. As Bly leaves both of these items of food untouched, another patient tells her to “force the food down, else you will be sick, and who know but what, with these surroundings, you may go crazy”(5-6). After being fed non-nourishing food, the patients went on to their bath. Here, the women are forced to undress in front of everyone and are placed into an ice-cold bathtub. As the nurse scrubs her and then dumps buckets of cold water on her head, Bly states, “I think I experienced some of the sensations of a drowning person as they dragged me, gasping, shivering, and quaking, from the tub” (7). Not only were these women devoted against their own will, but they were traumatized through the necessity of bathing. Compared to the eating and bathing conditions the women in the asylum were given, the sleeping conditions were not any better. The patients are given beds that have “been made high in the center and sloping on either side” (Bly 7). Bly explained her first night in the asylum as “a sheet and an oilcloth were under me, and a sheet and black wool blanket above. I never felt anything so annoying as that wool blanket as I tried to keep it around my shoulders to stop the chills from getting underneath. When I pull it up I left my feet bare, and when I pulled it down my shoulders were exposed. There was absolutely nothing in the room but the bed and myself” (8). In history, women were put into a mental hospital with hopes of lessening their insanity, but in the end come out being more insane due to the treatments received. The treatments mentioned in both Bly’s piece and the article seem painful and violent rather than suitable. As the population of the mentally ill grew throughout America, community institutions were created in order to handle the needs of the individuals (U.S National Library of Medicine).

Overall, through the history of the mentally ill and hospitals, and Nelly Bly’s Ten Days in a Mad-House, one can see how the rights of women who are ill have changed throughout time. In Bly’s work everyone can realize that women were not given a chance to prove themselves not mentally ill, they are treated with violence, and were put in terrible living conditions. The end of her piece leaves the reader left with a sense that the women come out of that asylum more traumatized and disturbed than they were going in. Mental illness has always been a major issue, and since the population of them grew through out history, curable treatments have finally been found. Although there may still be a few issues in the world today with how women are treated, they were not treated fairly at all in the past. Women were never given the chance to prove themselves healthy, and obviously the asylums didn’t help with their case. Without Bly’s work pointing out how woman were treated unfairly in the past, the possibility of these curable treatments being discovered would be very unlikely. 
