Question

Dorothea Dix's Report
Dorothea Dix was a teacher and school founder in Boston. One Sunday in 1841, Dix went to teach religious classes at a local prison. She was shocked to find mentally ill people there. She then traveled to towns across the state, visiting the places where mentally ill people were kept.



In 1843, Dix wrote a report on her research for the Massachusetts state legislature. Read the following passage from her report. Then answer the question below.

Gentlemen, [I] call your attention to the present state of [mentally ill] persons confined within this [state], in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens!...

I offer the following [examples] from my notebook.…

[in the town of] Medford: One [mentally ill person] chained, and one in a close stall for seventeen years…
Granville: One often closely confined, now losing the use of his limbs from want of exercise…
Dedham: The [mentally ill person] disadvantageously placed in the jail. In the [poorhouse], two females in stalls…in the main building, lie in wooden bunks filled with straw; always shut up…
Men of Massachusetts, I beg, I implore, I demand pity and protection.…Raise up the fallen,…restore the outcast, [and] defend the helpless.



confined: kept in a small place

disadvantageously: harmfully

men of Massachusetts: men of the state legislature

implore: ask

Question
Based on this passage, what were the main purposes of Dix's report? Select the two that apply.(2 points)
Responses

to persuade the state legislature to take better care of mentally ill people
to persuade the state legislature to take better care of mentally ill people

to show that mental illnesses were impossible for doctors to treat
to show that mental illnesses were impossible for doctors to treat

to prove that mentally ill people were mistreated in different places
to prove that mentally ill people were mistreated in different places

Answers

GPT-4o mini
The main purposes of Dix's report based on the passage are:

1. to persuade the state legislature to take better care of mentally ill people
2. to prove that mentally ill people were mistreated in different places