Nellie Bly
Part of the framework of the book subtly pursues a theme which makes the author herself a symbol. Upon accepting the assignment and prior to entering it undercover, the author was dismissive of even the possibility that the horror stories about them could be more than exaggerations. She even goes so far as to confess “That such an institution could be mismanaged, and that cruelties could exist ‘neath its roof, I did not deem possible.” In this sense, the author becomes a symbolic incarnation of the ignorance of class division and lifestyle which so easily denies truths they have been told by those who know better.
Blank Stare
In preparation for his role in Raging Bull, actor Robert De Niro famously got into a boxer’s shape and learned how to box before gaining sixty pounds in order to portray what a boxer who has gone to fat is really like. Almost comically, Nellie Bly’s only genuine preparation for pretending to be insane—not that it was her fault, she just didn’t have the access to anything more—was to develop a blank stare. The blank staring eyes eventually becomes a symbol of insanity.
“Positively demented”
A doctor who proceeds to give what is a highly questionable examination of Bly proceeds to diagnose her as a case beyond hope who is “positively demented.” This doctor and his diagnosis becomes the central symbol of the utter and comprehensive incompetence of the entire system of mental health in the country at the time.
The Blue-Eyed Irish Girl
Among the inmates that Bly encounters inside the asylum is an Irish girl with blue eyes consumed by religious guilt. The author characterizes her as one “who believed she was damned because of one act in her life” who would make horrible cries each night about being damned forever. The women in the asylum get there for many reasons, but the Irish girl symbolizes the hideously oversized influence that organized religion had on increasing the population of madhouses.
Sanity
The most ironic element in the entire story Bly tells still has the power to shock. Once she had succeeded in being diagnosed as insane and sent to the asylum, she instantly reverted back to her normal behavior: “I talked and acted just as I do in ordinary life.” Despite this, however, she soon finds that the more normal she behaves, the more insane she was considered to be. This divergence symbolizes how perception of others plays an integral role in the diagnosis and treatment of others suffering from mental health problems.
