Nellie Bly
The main character, narrator, and author of the book, Nellie Bly is an enigmatic woman tasked with infiltrating an insane asylum in New York to expose the awful conditions in the asylum. She was an intelligent and empathetic woman responsible for pioneering the field of investigative journalism.
Bly committed herself to an insane asylum. There, she was horrified by the inhumane conditions the people committed to the asylum were forced to endure. She saw these conditions and worked hard to expose the asylum and the mental health system as a whole.
Joseph Pulitzer
Joseph Pulitzer, the namesake of the Pulitzer Prize, plays an integral role in Ten Days in a Mad-House. It was the brilliant Pulitzer who tasked Bly with infiltrating the insane asylum. This assignment, the likes of which had never been done before, was incredibly unique and represented how forward-thinking and innovative Pulitzer was.
The Doctors
The doctors in the book, all of whom were symbolic of the corruption of the mental health system, are a major character in the book. Despite the fact that Bly had very clearly faked her illness, the doctors proclaimed that Bly was insane. And when she clearly got better, the doctors thought she was even more insane. Many of the doctors described in Bly's book are illogical, have bad tempers, and are very clearly poorly educated.
