History Main / GildedCage

* In the original ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast'', Belle goes to the Beast's castle to save her father's life. Aside from the Beast asking for her hand in marriage every day, she's got it pretty good; eating rich food, and being waited on hand and foot by the castle's unseen servants.

* ''Film/TheTrumanShow'': Truman Burbank, star of [[TitleDrop the "Truman Show"]], has a cushy life, working a job as an insurance agent, married to a beautiful wife, driving a nice car, and living in a beautiful house. However, as the star of the show, he's not allowed to leave the gigantic stage where he's spent his entire life by discouraging his curiosity of what's beyond the island where the show takes place.

** Elsa and her younger sister Anna from ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' haven't left their home in over ten years at the start of the film. It's implied Elsa has barely left her ''room'' in that timespan. In Elsa's case it's partially self-imposed due to fear that her ice powers could harm people, while Anna is forced to stay a shut-in due to her sister. Their parents, the queen and king, were {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s who wanted the best for their kids but ended up just shutting them off from everyone. The movie kicks off when Elsa is forced to open her gilded cage on her coronation day. She tries to re-close the gates after an argument with Anna regarding her engagement with Hans presumably to get rid of him but unfortunately before she could do so, Anna's ArmorPiercingQuestion caused Elsa to snap and reveal her powers to everyone which makes her run away in fear.

* ''Webcomic/{{Blindsprings}}'' has the main character, Tamaura, spend all of her childhood [[BigFancyCastle in two]] [[AnotherDimension of these,]] [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld and that's saying a lot.]] In fact, she was straight-up {{teleport|ation}}ed from one cage to another. She had to rescued from the latter one literally [[StockholmSyndrome kicking]] and [[DeliberatelyDistressedDamsel screaming.]] [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] to the point of being a VisualPun [[http://blindsprings.com/comic/a06 here.]]

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'': In ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy'', RebelliousPrincess Aravis was to be [[ArrangedMarriage pawned off]] as a [[OldManMarryingAChild child bride]] to the cruel, repulsive Vizier Ahoshta Tarkaan, the second most powerful man in the whole kingdom. She would've been little more than a puppet wife locked in a luxurious palace had she not {{run away|Fiance}}. (Aravis's already married friend Lasaraleen is in a similar situation, though she doesn't seem to mind that much.) Aravis's WickedStepmother manipulated Aravis's dad to come up with the arrangement to get rid of a hated stepdaughter.

* ''Literature/WorldOfTheFiveGods'': Mentioned in ''Curse of Chalion'', as dy Cazaril basically warns the Royesse Iselle what will come of winding up surrounded by flatterers and yes-men.
--->"Not all prisons are made of iron bars. Some are made of feather beds. Royesse."

* Frederick in ''Literature/TheCollector'' keeps the object of his infatuation in one. Since she's an art student, he adds various art books and stationery, as well as anything she asks for, to the basement cage in hopes of gaining her favor.
* In ''Literature/TheDarkTower2004'', the Breakers live in a lovely, idyllic 1950s-esque town called Blue Heaven. At a distance, it resembles a college town, with the latest in movies, holographic sex simulations, food and drink. Their every whim is catered to. However, it is set in Thunderclap, a highly radioactive, toxic environment and is surrounded by electric fences and armed guards who will shoot on sight. Almost all Breakers have grown completely used to their privileges and don't care their mission is [[spoiler:destroy all of reality]]. They "get along to get along."

* ''Literature/TheFirstCircle'' is set in a ''sharashka'', the Club Fed-style encampments within TheGulag for scientists doing necessary work (See below under "Real Life"). Solzhenitsyn himself served out most of his eight-year sentence in one, due to his talent as a mathematician.

* The ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' series reveals that the Emperor had a set of twenty apartments built beneath the Imperial Palace on Terra to house the Primarchs once the Great Crusade was complete. While they're very luxurious and fit for the demigods, the obvious implication is that they're Gilded Cages to contain the Primarchs once they've outlived their usefulness as conquerors and generals.

* In an episode of ''Series/TheChampions1968'', aptly titled "The Gilded Cage", Richard is held in the bedroom of a luxury London flat, where he receives visits from a lovely young lady. His captor threatens to kill the lady unless Richard can decipher a series of blueprints for what turns out of be [[spoiler:a revolutionary (and ultimately overpriced) formula for a new petroleum substitute]].

* In ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'', the Village is a quaint, bucolic vacation spot, with comfortable accomodations and all sorts of idyllic activities to pass the time. It's also, as the show's title suggests, an inescapable prison, where you must conform to the mysterious jailer's ways or else suffer multiple druggings and various head games designed to break your spirit and turn you into a drone.

*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E23Displaced Displaced]]", the entire ''Voyager'' crew is transported one-by-one off the ship and placed within a prison habitat environmentally controlled to parameters that the alien kidnappers found would be a good fit for their crew. Afterwards, one of them shows up to tell them that they ought to be grateful...

* In the season 4 finale of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Zachariah and the other angels detain Dean in one of these to keep him from getting himself killed [[spoiler:since he's one of the only people suitable to host the Archangel Michael]] and to prevent him from [[spoiler:stopping Lucifer's escape]]. It's a lavish and opulent room stocked with Dean's favorite beer and the best burgers he remembers eating from his childhood; the angels even [[KissMeImVirtual offer him Ginger and Mary Ann]] from ''Series/GilligansIsland'' because [[PerverseSexualLust Dean has always had a thing for them]], but he passes. In a moment of helpless despair, Dean almost gives in and tries to eat one of the burgers [[spoiler:right before Castiel breaks him out.]]

* Heavily {{implied}} with {{Heaven}} in ''Literature/TheBible''. The aforementioned place is frequently described as being a perfect paradise, but from what it seems, anyone who enters {{Heaven}} can't leave it at any time or for any reason.

* In the ''Literature/{{Ramayana}}'', Sita is kidnapped and held in the palace of Lanka (complete with attendants) by King Ravana, for a whole year. He tried to sleep with her, but as she was already HappilyMarried to [[PrinceCharming Rama]], she refused Ravana's advances.

* Princess Shizukaria from ''Anime/DoraemonNobitasThreeVisionarySwordsmen'', a RebelliousPrincess, considers a life of luxury in the palace as a prison, when the citizens of Yumemiru are suffering outside because of the constant war against demons. When the king forbids her from leaving her palace for the last time, Shizukaria instead decides to escape via BedsheetLadder.
* [[spoiler:Athena Tennos]] from ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'' used to be a literal prisoner in her palace. [[spoiler: Hayate's brother Ikusa rescued her. Then, he disappeared.]]
* Treize Khusrenada from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' is confined to a posh country estate after he protests the Romefeller Foundation's decision to use Mobile Dolls.
** In the ''Frozen Teardrop'' novels, [[spoiler: Relena's great-aunt Sabrina]] was locked away in a suite of her family's mansion, with her pet cat as her only companion.
* Amuro Ray in ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' has been living in a very nice mansion in the midwest USA since the end of the One Year War. However, he's effectively under house arrest there, with his movements constantly monitored by the Federation government. This occurs despite his war hero status because the Federation is terrified by the existence of Newtypes, and Amuro is one of the most powerful known Newtypes as well as an ace MS pilot, and they are worried he might revolt against them. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Which he ends up doing, in part because of their treatment of him.]]
** It's revealed that some of the other surviving White Base crew also suffered the same fate. In Bright's case, it's being given the "privilege" of being a glorified chaffeur for the Federation's elite while his wife Mirai and their children Hathaway and Cheimin are forced to live in Jaburo as "hostages" to keep him in line. As with Amuro, this backfires: he soon joins the AEUG, and some time later Amuro and his allies rescue Bright's family and take them to actual safety.

* In ''Manga/{{Clover}}'', the "greenhouse" [[MysteriousWaif Suu]] was kept in. It's quite beautiful, but Suu has to live in complete isolation from the rest of the world, as she is powerful enough to defeat the government officials, and they "don't want that power to fall into the wrong hands."
* Rea in ''Manga/{{Sankarea}}''. She is restricted from ever leaving her estate by her dad to where she is barely even allowed to go out to school to the point she sneaks off at night to scream into an abandon well of how she wish she wasn't born a Sanka. And when she starts to talk to a boy, her father even takes school away from her to be home schooled and orders that the boy she was hanging out with to be castrated. After this, she drinks a chemical that contains poisons plants in an [[DrivenToSuicide attempt to kill herself]]. Though it instead did [[OurZombiesAreDifferent something else]].
* Invoked in ''Anime/MagicKnightRayearth'' when Zagato tells the Magic Knights that Emeraude has to "spend her whole life locked up in a cage" as a result of being Pillar. As Pillar, Emeraude was the most powerful person in Cephiro--but she had no freedom, at least not to have what she wished for the most: [[spoiler: to be with the one she loved, Zagato]]. Later echoed by the Magic Knights when the invaders wanted to take over Cephiro--especially when Aska wanted to be beautiful, and is told "but for who?", since the Pillar could not fall in love with anyone, lest their thoughts and wishes not be for Cephiro anymore and it will start falling apart around them.
* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', this is Eren's opinion of the last human city, although the conditions are somewhat worse than most of them (for example, there's so little farmland, meat is essentially a luxury item), with the only true advantage being relative safety from the Titans. Most of humanity is content to live in the walls indefinitely but Eren repeatedly calls it a bird cage and is determined to see the outside world.
* Deconstructed in the manga of ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'', where a woman in this situation begs Wolfwood to free her and he is not inclined to help. He points out a starving bird and comments on how much it would like to have a life like hers. Since the setting is a DeathWorld, freedom is not all it's cracked up to be.

* An Indigo League episode of ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'' shows that [[TheMcCoy James]] ran away from home and joined [[TerribleTrio Team Rocket]] partially to get out of one of these and partially to avoid an ArrangedMarriage to a [[{{Yandere}} girl]] he hated.
** [[TheCollector Jirarudan]] in ''Anime/{{Pokemon 2000}}'' is confined to his luxurious airship, essentially a floating art museum, and it's distinctly implied that he has almost no contact with the outside world. Unlike many other examples, this seems to be self-imposed, and he doesn't consider it a prison (although the way it cuts him off from identifying with anything outside his ship qualifies it as such).
* In the ending of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion''. [[spoiler:Homura steals Madoka's godlike powers and resets the world so everybody else is normal and nobody remembers how the world used to be. This is all so [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy Madoka can be safe and happy]]. The problem is that when Madoka and Sayaka remember how the world used to be, they consider what Homura did to be wrong and want to break out, so Homura simply erases their memories, presumably every time they regain them.]] Note the school which was very white in the anime, especially the roof with its lovely gothic cage. It is now literally gold-toned.

** Princess Shirahoshi lives in a comfortable luxury room, but leaving her room would put her in danger, since the AxCrazy Van der Decken IX. throws constantly giant axes at her that follow her wherever she is. The iron door of her room protects her from the axes, but it also separates her from the outside world. Everything changes when she meets Luffy...

*** Whole Cake Island, the center of Totland and Big Mom's HQ, is this for [[BigScrewedUpFamily Big Mom's children]]. They're all left wanting for nothing, with food and riches everywhere they go, but [[EvilMatriarch Big Mom is so tyrannical and controlling]] that most of her children gave up on defying her to pursue their own dreams [[spoiler: save for her daughter Lola, who successfully ran away with her mother's Vivre Card.]]

** The non-canon film ''[[Anime/OnePieceFilmGold Gold]]'' takes this quite literally, as it takes place on a beautiful entertainment city-ship made entirely out of gold. However, the ruler ''Gild'' Tesoro intends for every visitor to lose their money by gambling and be forced to work for him on the ship, with his gold-controlling powers allowing him to control all of the visitors for good measure.

* In ''Manga/Brave10'', after kidnapping her, Date is a good host to Isanami... aside from the chain spiked to the ground.
* The ''{{Hentai}}'' series ''Yuki Yoru Ichiya Monogatari'' (English: ''Snow Night Stories'') is a about a concubine who tells her lord three stories a la ''Literature/OneThousandAndOneNights''. The last story/episode is about a powerful nobleman who marries a princess from a small neighboring kingdom and promises to give her lavish gifts, but on the conditions that she never leave his mansion and [[MaritalRapeLicense satisfy his every sexual desire.]] The story ends with the young Ronin tasked with guarding the princess while she visited her father's grave, convincing her to run away with him by promising to not treat her the way her husband did.

* The Soma estate in ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' is this for Yuki. The reboot's first ending has a scene where he sadly watches his fellow Zodiac members go by outside, wanting to join their fun.
* {{Downplayed|Trope}} in ''Anime/JoseeTheTigerAndTheFish'', Josee is confined to her grandmother's house and rarely allowed to go on walks. The house itself is modest and the only person who take cares of Josee is her grandmother.

* ''Manga/HybridXHeartMagiasAcademyAtaraxia'':
** When Yurishia, Hayuru, and Silvia are captured by the Batlantis Empire, they are put to work as {{Idol Singer}}s. They become extremely popular and are given many luxuries, but they are forced to wear PowerNullifier collars and desperately want to go home. This separately happens to Scarlett and her team, but they get so caught up in becoming popular stars that they want to compete with the first group and do not even think of escaping, with Yurishia calling them idiots. They eventually manage to escape.
** Zelshione commits treason against the Batlantis Empire by having an affair with the then Empress Aine's lover Kizuna and then going AWOL from her post as Captain of the Guard. She is eventually caught and arrested, and is discovered to have had Kizuna's son. Empress Grace becomes enamored with the baby, so she "[[{{Unishment}} punishes]]" Zelshione by removing her from her post and sentencing her to house arrest inside her palace until she raises her son into a splendid person. Zelshione is perfectly fine with this, since she and her son are safe and she can do anything she wants except leave.
* In the opening scenes of the 1988 {{OVA}} of ''Manga/{{Appleseed}}'', a woman is DrivenToSuicide because she has become convinced that the supposed {{utopia}} of Olympus, a computer-controlled hyper-organized city of which only 20% of the populace are humans, with the other 80% being [[ArtificialHuman bioroids]], is an unnatural, soul-stifling place not meant for human occupants. Her husband goes on to become the TragicVillain of the OVA, and even gives a stealth MotiveRant to the OVA's heroes about his late wife's beliefs prior to the final confrontation.

* Invoked in ''Anime/MagicKnightRayearth'' when Zagato tells the Magic Knights that Emeraude has to "spend her whole life locked up in a cage" as a result of being Pillar. As Pillar, Emeraude was the most powerful person in Cephiro- but she had no freedom, at least not to have what she wished for the most [[spoiler: (to be with the one she loved, Zagato, that is)]]. Later echoed by the Magic Knights when the invaders wanted to take over Cephiro- especially when Aska wanted to be beautiful, and is told "but for who?", since the Pillar could not fall in love with anyone, lest their thoughts and wishes won't be for Cephiro anymore and it will start falling apart around them.

-->-- '''Bob''', ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' fanfic ''Fanfic/PatronOfTheArtOfWar'', the prison cell that Thrawn has put Sabine in an art studio filled with supplies for her to paint. She has no allusions that it isn’t still a prison cell.

* In the ''Literature/CampHalfBloodSeries'' fanfic ''Fanfic/TheyllNameACityAfterUs'' the divine island of Delos becomes this to Percy Jackson. It is the most beautiful place that Percy has ever seen but she was brought there against her will and can't leave. Also, everything in there is under the control of her enamoured kidnapper Apollo.

* A first season episode of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' shows that [[TheMcCoy James]] ran away from home and joined [[TerribleTrio Team Rocket]] partially to get out of one of these and partially to avoid an ArrangedMarriage to a [[{{Yandere}} girl]] he hated.

* Sigmund Ausfaller is "invited" to be a permanent "guest" of the Hindmost in ''Literature/DestroyerOfWorlds''.

* ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfAminaAlSirafi'': [[spoiler:Dunya [[TheRunaway ran away]] from her wealthy, prestigious family rather than be forced into an ArrangedMarriage that would give her every physical comfort but strip away all her freedom.]]

** In the spinoff comic [[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSearch {{The Search}}]], after Ursa marries Ozai, she is told that while her life as queen will be much more luxurious than in her home village, she cannot see her family, friends or old boyfriend Ikem again, have certain possessions or go anywhere she wants without the royal family's permission.

* In ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'', Luctiana kidnaps Saito and Tiffania and takes them to her home in an oasis. They are allowed to roam around the paradise. Since they are in the middle of a desert, they can't possibly leave without a dragon or vehicle to ride.

* Common in many "GirlInTheTower" tales, where the princess is well-treated, but it does not change the fact that they are ultimately prisoners. Examples include ''Literature/TheCanaryPrince'', ''Literature/{{Prunella}}'', and ''The White Cat'', Madame d'Aulnoy's variation of ''Literature/{{Puddocky}}''.
* In ''[[Literature/TheTrollsDaughter The Troll's Daughter]]'', the castle where the troll hides his daughter is made of glass with lovely furnishings and fascinating undersea sights. She wears colorful silk and always has more than enough food. However, she can't leave or have visitors. Tired of it, she comes up with a plan for her young suitor to help free her.

* In the ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' series, several citizens from the United States of Europe go to UsefulNotes/{{London}}. They are housed in the Tower of London and treated well (for the times at least), but they cannot leave. The characters are imprisoned there for several books.

** Apparently they relented, because in ''[[Literature/TheLostWorld1995 The Lost World]]'', Ian Malcolm is no longer confined and it's mentioned in passing that Dr. Sattler teaches in California, and Dr. Grant is lecturing in Paris. This is because they signed an agreement not to tell anybody about what happened.

* In response to a prophecy that his son would become a great religious leader or a great king (and preferring that he become the latter), the father of [[UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} Siddhartha Gautama]] kept him in one of these. [[LateArrivalSpoiler It didn't work]].
* In Myth/HinduMythology, Sita is kidnapped and held in the palace of Lanka (complete with attendants) by King Ravana, for a whole year. He tried to sleep with her, but as she was already HappilyMarried to [[PrinceCharming Rama]], she refused Ravana's advances.