During the nineteenth century was not much research or monitoring done in the institutions for the mentally ill. Little was known about what caused people to be mentally ill and what defined them to be mentally ill. In 10 Days in a Mad-House the author, Nellie Bly, is a field reporter who gets put into a mad house to do research on the treatment of the patients. Her research is supported by articles that have been written about that time period and can reflect the social and historical aspects of the time period. By understanding the way patients in mental hospitals were treated in the late 19th century, we can understand that the narrator in 10 Days in a Mad-House could have potentially gone insane while inside of the lunatic asylum. 

During the nineteenth century men had more power than women. According to Sara Newman’s “Disability and Life Writing: Reports from the Nineteenth-century Asylum” men had the right to put their wives into a mental institution (271).  This shows that the women in this time period did not have as much rights as men. During this time period mental institutions did not allow all of the inmates to have all their rights. Sara Newman explains that they were robbed of their legal rights (270-272).  While these patients do not have legal rights they can be excused from certain laws if it is just part of their condition. Alan Rodgers explains in Murders and Madness: Law and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts that “An insane person was not criminally responsible for what he could not help doing” (54). During this time period women and mental patients were not treated fairly. 

In the mad house, Nellie Bly had gone through a lot that the nurses put the patients through. While in the asylums many factors could keep the patients’ conditions from getting better and may cause them to get worse. One of these is how little respect the patients get. In 10 Days in a Mad-House, the narrator is not allowed to voice her own opinion. The nurses do not listen to their opinions but Dr. Ingram would listen but he would still not give her full respect. Bly writes “he said that Miss Grady said I only brought a book there; and that I had no pencil. I was provoked, and I insisted that I had, whereupon I was advised to fight against the imaginations of my brain” (291). The author had brought a pencil and a book in with her but got it taken when she got into the asylum. When she told Dr. Ingram that she had both she was told to “fight against the imaginations of her brain”. This shows that the not anyone would give any credibility to someone that is mad. Sara Newman explains that “not much care seems to be given to the patients’ perspectives” (269). This shows that the care they were given was not based off the way they were feeling which means that the people treating the mentally ill do not respect what they believe would be right for themselves. 

10 Days in a Mad-House is supported by what is known about the nineteenth century. The rights for women and insane people and the treatments inside of a mental institution were common for the time period but later there were reforms on them to bring us to where we are today. It could have been common for mental patients’ condition to get worse while they were inside of a mental institution in this time period because of the harsh treatments and lack of freedoms that the patients went through. 
