During the nineteenth century the mentally were not treated well, very little was known about what caused mental health issues. Inside of mental institutes there was not much monitoring done to keep them safe and well maintained for the patients. 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 women had very little power. 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). The way that men could imprison their wives shows that the women in this time period did not have the same 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 Nellie Bly’s piece it takes place inside of a women’s mental institution and the patients’ food was not equal to the Doctor’s and nurses’ foods. Bly writes “There we got glimpses of melons and grapes and all kinds of fruits, beautiful white bread and nice meats” (293). While the patients receive foods that are barely edible. Bly writes “the patients had to try to choke down fresh fish, just boiled in water, without salt, pepper or butter” (293). Their difference in foods is highly uneven and the patients got to see the foods they were eating at some points which caused them to get hungrier. This treatment could be common for the 19th century and could cause patients to be malnourished and sick.

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). In Nellie Bly’s piece, she tries complaining about needing more cloths because of the cold but the nurses would not listen to them. Bly writes “I asked some of them to tell how they were suffering from the cold and the insufficiency of the clothing, but they replied that the nurse would beat them if they told” (293) 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

The harsh treatment of the patients by the nurses was extensive in 10 Days in a Mad-House. The nurses would call the patients names and beat them. Bly writes “This made the poor creature cry the more, and so they choked her. Yes, actually choked her” (297). These harsh punishments were supported by Sara Newman’s article. Newman writes “The inmates’ experience of cruelty leads them to question who is insane and, in turn, characterize their oppressors in their own terms” (273). This shows that there was a problem in the nineteenth century with there being harsh treatment and that the care givers could be considered insane for thinking what they were doing was not wrong. 

In 10 Days in a Mad-house Nellie Bly at one point could have appeared crazy after she took a bath in the mad house. Nellie Bly writes “For once I did look insane” (287). Even though she is completely sane, since she has been in the mad house and after the bath she could believe that she could have appeared to be insane. A similar idea is supported by Sara Newman’s piece. Newman writes “Others confirm that initialization makes inmates crazy.” Newman writes this after many firsthand accounts of different people. 

The things that happen in 10 Days in a Mad-House is supported by what is known about the nineteenth century. The rights for women and insane people were taken away and the harsh 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. 10 Days in a Mad-House shows that the mental institutions of that time could turn a sane person crazy. 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 and different articles about the nineteenth century can support this claim. 
