Anxiety
Before Bly could undertake the undercover assignment in the asylum, she had to play the part. The possibility of the mission failing was high since she is mentally stable and has to learn how to appear insane. Henceforth, the imagery of the preparation process highlights her anxiety:
“The weather was not cold; but, nevertheless, when I thought of what was to come, wintery chills ran races up and down my back in very mockery of the perspiration which was slowly but surely taking the curl out of my bangs. Between times, practicing before the mirror and picturing my future as a lunatic”
Temporary Home
Bly has to situate herself in a boarding house in order to play the role of a mentally unstable individual. Luckily she finds the place suitable to accomplish her charade and ensure her admission at the asylum. She narrates the grim atmosphere that was more than enough to facilitate her act:
“It was a wretchedly lonely evening, and the light which fell from the solitary gas jet in the parlor, and oil-lamp the hall, helped to envelop us in a dusky hue and dye our spirits navy blue. I felt it would not require many inundations of this atmosphere to make me a fit subject for the place I was striving to reach.”
Playing the Role
The difficult part was to ensure that she passes the doctor’s assessment to be declared mentally unfit. As such, Bly tries to behave in a manner that would give all the symptoms that the examiner is looking for. She describes in detail the examination that will determine her fate:
“But I put out my tongue, which he looked at in a sagacious manner. Then he felt my pulse and listened to the beating of my heart. I had not the least idea how the heart of an insane person beat, so I held my breath all the while he listened, until, when he quit, I had to give a gasp to regain it. Then he tried the effect of the light on the pupils of my eyes. Holding his hand within a half inch of my face, he told me to look at it, then, jerking it hastily away, he would examine my eye”
In the Bath
Once in the asylum, Bly undergoes all the brutality and neglect that she set out to investigate. During bath time, she endures the cold water that distresses the patients including herself despite being mentally fit:
“My teeth chattered and my limbs were goose-fleshed and blue with cold. Suddenly I got, one after the other, three buckets of water over my head—ice-cold water, too—into my eyes, my ears, my nose and my mouth. I think I experienced some of the sensations of a drowning person as they dragged me, gasping, shivering and quaking, from the tub. For once I did look insane.”
