Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?
Escapism is basically a mental diversion or "escape" from the perceived unpleasant or banal aspects of daily life. Everything that makes us escape from Real Life can be considered a form of Escapism. This trope is Truth in Television; common forms of Escapism are video games, drugs, Alcohol, Fiction, Facebook games, gambling, movies, and TVTropes.
This trope applies to fictional characters using escapism in order to escape from their problems and/or not having to face Real Life.
For an in-depth analysis of this trope, go to Analysis.Escapism.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Asuka relies on playing video games after her Mind Rape, in order to forget her childhood experiences and her past trauma. To a certain extent, striving to be the best pilot is a way of escaping her past too.
Opposing this trope is pretty much the entire point of Paranoia Agent.
The main characters in Bridge to Terabithia create a fantasy world in order to escape their hardships at school.
Sidekicks is about a sickly and bullied kid who copes by having vivid daydreams — bordering on hallucinations — about teaming up with Chuck Norris.
Basically the underlying premise behind Sucker Punch.
In Brave, Merida rides her horse, practices her archery and does anything she can to keep her mind off what she considers the boring lessons her mother is teaching her regarding etiquette and managing a kingdom. Things come to a head when time catches up with her and she has to actually deal with matters head-on.
Literature
In the Silence of the Lambs series it is said that, while in prison, Hannibal Lecter often lives in the memory palace he has built in his mind.
"Memory, Agent Starling, is what I have instead of a view."
In "/The Little Princess," Sara goes from being wealthy, well-respected, and popular to a scullery maid in a single day. She moves from the largest room in the school to the rat-infested attic. How does she deal? She pretends her doll is sentient and tht she is a princess and must act accordingly. She continues to pretend and act as if she is a gentle and beautiful princess even as the antagonists treat her terribly.
Live Action TV
In Smallville, it's implied that Clark is just a crazy person that created a fantasy world in order to escape reality. Until that's revealed to be a hallucination by Dr. Hudson (a "zoner").
The Charmed episode "Brain Drain" has The Source create an elaborate spell to trick Piper into giving up the sisters' powers. He makes Piper imagine that she is really in a mental hospital where Prue, Phoebe and Paige aren't really her sisters and she doesn't have powers. The doctors in the hallucination claim she created her life as a Charmed One to cope with the death of her grandmother. The chilling part is that the hallucination is well timed to Piper regretting becoming a witch so she almost believes the hallucination.
Similar to the Charmed example, Buffy the Vampire Slayer gives us "Normal Again" where Buffy gets venom from a demon that convinces her she is really in a mental hospital and that her life as a Slayer is just escapism fantasy.
Newspaper Comics
Played with - multiple comic artists have done one shots or simple comics showing fantasy characters such as wizards, warriors and dragons playing a fictional role playing game of our world such as Papers & Paychecks instead of Dungeons & Dragons. (Example here◊)
Gaz of Invader Zim is obsessed with video games. In her world humans are generally stupid, ignorant and repulsive and the world they live in is polluted and unclean. She uses video games and apathy to escape her reality.
This is referenced in a Phineas and Ferb commercial were Phineas tells the audience to turn off their computers and enjoy life outside
In the South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft", there is a nerd that is depicted as completely obsessed with World of Warcraft and completely out of touch of reality. He is described as having "no life" by the characters.
In Chaotic, the heroes' best friend is constantly avoiding Real Life through a trading card game. Then this trope is subverted when Chaotic turns out to be real.
Moral Orel: Nurse Bendy's room looks like that of a little girl, full of bright colors and toys. She acts out the role of a mother to a loving family with a teddy bear husband and teddy bear son. She does it to escape from being constantly used, being utterly alone, and having no one who really thinks about her thoughts and feelings and treats her like a real person. However, once she is reunited with her actual son Joe, she throws away her "son" doll, because she finally has a real son who cares about her a lot. Very arguably one of the most positive portrayals of anti-escapism in television.
