History Main / MadwomanInTheAttic

* In ''Anime/BloodPlus'', [[spoiler: Saya's twin sister Diva]] spent ''several'' years locked away in a tower as an experiment, with only one person ([[spoiler: the MadScientist Amshel]]) as a companion. When released from said place, [[spoiler:she]] is... '''[[PsychopathicManchild extremely]]''' [[AxCrazy unstable]] [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil as]] [[GigglingVillain a]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds result.]]

* [[spoiler: Towa]] from ''Manga/MermaidSaga''.
* [[spoiler: Sakurako Saiki]] from ''Manga/SakuraGari'' was locked in an old warehouse for nine years. The reasons are later explained: [[spoiler:she had always been TheUnfavourite even before Souma arrived to the family, but was allowed to live in the more modern mansion like any other family member. Even after her mother's extremely weird death, she was staying there... it was only after her CreepyChild behavior showed itself ''in public'' that she was confined to the warehouse as punishment, with the butler Katou as her personal caretaker, while the rest of the family and servants told the outsiders that she died of illness few after her mom died]]. Unlike other cases, [[spoiler:Sakurako]] ''is'' ultimately allowed to leave the warehouse/"attic" and come back to the main home, mostly because of a fire in there that revealed the deceit; when speaking to [[spoiler:Souma]] few after her release, the person offhandedly says that they now have some difficulty to walk, due to having been locked in a relatively small space for so long.
* In ''Manga/TokyoGhoul [=:Re=]'', Shuu Tsukiyama is revealed to have been reduced to this state in the three years between the series. Extensive grief and starvation have taken their toll on him, leaving him bed-ridden except for during violent episodes where he attacks anyone near him. This forces the servants to keep him drugged, lying to him about what happened and over-hunting to keep him from dying. After Kanae finally [[spoiler: brings him evidence that Kaneki is still alive]], he begins to recover and struggles to make amends to his family for all the trouble he caused them.

* We have this played straight in two variants in the ''Fanfic/Gensokyo20XX'', series, the first instance is with Yukari, when she is locked in the cellar of an old rumored to be haunted mansion during the events of 20XXI when she went through a bit of BreakTheCutie, losing her mind thereafter, staying there for about seven chapters, and the second instance is with [[spoiler: Reimu]], during the events of 20XXV. However, in the latter case, it was stressed that locking her in a room was better than a BedlamHouse.

* [[spoiler: Ryuuko]] being the titular cellar secret in ''Fanfic/CellarSecrets'', as we find out in chapters three and five. However, she isn't mad or insane, instead she was a somewhat normal little girl (with some impairments), who had the misfortune of being something her mother wanted to keep hidden. Oh, she wasn't just locked down there either, she was also abused and neglected, along with being made to live in a cage.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'', [[spoiler: Mirabel discovers her long-lost uncle Bruno has been hiding in the walls of the Madrigal house, and though he's actually a kind and thoughtful man he's also [[GoMadFromTheIsolation gone a little crazy from being cooped up all those years with no one to talk to but rats]].]]

* ''Film/TheBoy'': [[spoiler: This is the true twist of the film, as the real Brahms, who was thought to have died in childhood shortly after he killed a playmate, has been hidden inside the walls of the family home by his parents, while they pretended to have replaced him with a porcelain doll they treated like a living child to justify why they still bought supplies for more than just themselves, making everyone in town think they were just mad with grief.]]

* Invoked, along with many other tropes of Gothic Horror, in ''Film/TheBrood'', where a police detective suggests that the childlike mutant that murders the hero's mother-in-law may have been her own deformed child that she was keeping locked in the attic. Likewise, the extreme seclusion in which Oliver Reed's psychiatrist character keeps his patients has aspects of this, especially as the treatment makes them start to [[BodyHorror physically externalize]] their emotional problems. [[spoiler: Which is exactly where the killers are coming from.]]

* Larry Blamire's ''Film/DarkAndStormyNight'' has Thessaly, [[spoiler: Sinas Cavendar's insane ViolentGlaswegian daughter]]. She's actually treated pretty sympathetically, and is mostly a parody of the ''Old Dark House'' example above.

* This is what happens to the two novices in ''Film/TheHideout'' after one of them [[LoveMakesYouEvil killed her Mother Superior and two other old women to prove to her boyfriend she loved him]], and one of the women was the guy's mother, leaving him free to inherit. They didn't see anything wrong with any of that, though. [[spoiler: And the surviving one still doesn't.]]
%%* In ''Film/HouseAtTheEndOfTheStreet'', Carrie Anne fits the trope [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope except not]]]].%%ZCE%%
* ''Film/{{Housebound}}'' combines this trope with {{hikikomori}} in the form of [[spoiler: Eugene, a ''deeply'' mentally ill man who has been living inside the walls of the heroine's house her entire life -- without her knowledge. He's ultimately a MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold, though.]]

* Invoked in ''Film/{{Paranoiac}}'', where Simon ''thinks'' [[spoiler: he's keeping his brother locked up inside the garage. What he hasn't realized is that Tony is [[MummiesAtTheDinnerTable long dead]]]].

* Creator/DarioArgento's ''Film/{{Phenomena}}'' has one of these. He's a severely deformed SerialKiller CreepyChild living in [[spoiler: the basement of the protagonist's teacher, who is his mother]].

* In ''Film/HouseOfTheLongShadows'', the wealthy Grisbane family made a policy of enforcing their own justice rather than involving the police, and when the patriarch's youngest son Roderick murdered a local girl, they decided to lock him up in the attic for forty years. The movie is set on the night his sentence is finally up, and he is to be freed. It turns out that [[spoiler: he had actually escaped long ago, but sneaked back into the attic every now and then to give the impression that he was still a prisoner.]] And ''then'' it turns out that [[spoiler: it was all an elaborate ruse to win a bet, and all the Grisbanes, Roderick included, were just actors.]]

* The J.B. Stamper ''Literature/TalesForTheMidnightHour'' short story "The Attic Door" is about a girl going to spend a few days with her widowed aunt, and meets [[spoiler: her aunt's deformed son, a result of her late scientist uncle's experiment, locked up in the attic. Naturally, the aunt decides the girl's seen too much, so they'll just tell the girl's mother she never arrived...]]

** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' reveals that [[spoiler: Barty Crouch Sr. did this to his son]]. Downplayed in that everyone already knew that [[spoiler: Barty Jr.]] existed and was deranged, but they thought he'd died in prison.
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' reveals that this happened to Ariana Dumbledore. She [[TheOphelia went mad]] after a [[NothingIsScarier vaguely described]] [[spoiler:assault by a gang of Muggle boys]], and was locked up after [[spoiler: her father was sent to prison for attacking the Muggle boys, and refusing to say why he did it so she wouldn’t be sent to an institution]]. Everybody outside the family (the ones who knew about her existence, anyway) figured her mother had locked her up for being a Squib (someone born into a wizard family with no abilities), which was a bad thing to be during [[spoiler: Ariana's lifetime]]. Which, in the present in the novels, is still a bad thing.

** Literature/TheDunwichHorror, an invisible kept in the attic by Wilbur Whately (actually [[spoiler: his twin brother, but Wilbur [[HalfHumanHybrid looks more like their mother]]]]). The Horror eventually grows so large that Wilbur has to tear down the inside walls, nail the windows shut, and move himself into a shed.

** In "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family", some earlier members of the Jermyn family are said to have been kept out of public sight. However, as for the key figure of the great-great-great-grandmother of Arthur, she turns out not to have been insane so much as [[spoiler: not a human being at all.]]

* Kind of featured in the Woodland Mystery ''The Mystery of the Dark Old House'', but [[spoiler: the guy living in the title house is actually nice, just afraid of the outside world]].

** In "House of Hoarders", a woman whose house is otherwise crammed to the ceilings with junk keeps her daughter chained up in a concealed room, because [[spoiler: she found out the daughter was a serial killer]].

%%* [[spoiler: Jane Rochelle]] in the ''Series/MidsomerMurders'' episode "Judgement Day".

* ''Series/{{Reign}}'' has one of these in the character of Clarissa, [[spoiler: the secret daughter of Catherine,]] whose face is always hidden in a burlap bag with eyeholes, ever since she was disfigured as a child by a botched attempt at surgery [[spoiler: to remove the birthmark that would identify her real father and incriminate the queen]]. She lurks in the secret passageways of the castle and at times intervenes directly in the political intrigue and action, while taking care to avoid being seen. She is known as "the Ghost". Her lifetime of isolation and abuse results in her becoming an actual madwoman.
* [[spoiler: Subverted]] in one episode of ''Series/{{Sanctuary}}'', the one with the young autistic boy who draws monsters, a missing twin brother, their dead father, and the room under the floor, which has shackles welded to one wall. [[spoiler: The team originally assume the twin brother was kept down there by an abusive father. By the end of the episode, it turns out that the father was an Abnormal who developed laser eyes during fits, and he was locking himself down there to protect his family.]]

* Played with in ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "The Howling Man". The title character is locked in a monastery cell and spends a lot of time howling mournfully. The protagonist of the story thinks he's crazy, but after the protagonist releases him [[spoiler: he turns out to be [[LouisCypher Satan in disguise]]. [[SealedEvilInACan Oops]]]].

* Saul [[Creator/HPLovecraft Whateley]], resident of [[MeaningfulName Gomorra]] in ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}: The Weird West'', was locked in the attic by his BigScrewedUpFamily. His insane rantings are still loud enough to keep others in town awake at night. He's useless in a fight, though he might be seen as a sympathetic villain. [[spoiler: He actually sees the future, [[MadOracle and it's driven him quite mad]]. The family keeps him alive for scrying... and for unnerving the townsfolk.]]

* In ''VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth'', a woman in the [[spoiler: Waite's home]] is kept in the attic as she falls to TheCorruption. The husband is just trying to keep his family safe, though. If you know about Lovecraft's story the game is based on, it's clear that the "woman" [[spoiler:had never been a human being. The Third Oath of Dagon demands a follower to marry a pureblooded Deep One, and conceive a child with it. Since Deep Ones are immortal, the females instinctively try to kill their young, forcing the males to isolate them so their civilization can grow.]]

** In the form of[[spoiler: a giant, deformed child who is the brother of the killer that's been chasing you around. And he's not happy about being woken up]].

* The ''VideoGame/DeepSleepTrilogy'' features a woman named Felicity at the very end of the second game who is described as this trope. She went insane because [[spoiler: Her mind lost connection to her sleeping body and she can never again wake up, thus leaving her trapped for years]].

Usually AxCrazy and/or TheGrotesque, and sometimes InbredAndEvil. Compare ManInTheIronMask. While people with mental illness may not be dangerous, works may use the InsaneEqualsViolent trope. Non-consensual sub-trope of TheShutIn, and one possible form of being SentIntoHiding. If the madwoman is instead a monster, see SupportingTheMonsterLovedOne. If the character has recently moved into a new house which is already occupied, or a person moves in secretly while someone else is living there obliviously, it's SecretSquatter. Also see BunkerWomen, for when ordinary women are imprisoned in attics or basements by abusive captors.

Usually AxCrazy and/or TheGrotesque, and sometimes InbredAndEvil. Compare ManInTheIronMask. While people with mental illness may not be dangerous, works may use the InsaneEqualsViolent trope. Non-consensual sub-trope of TheShutIn, and one possible form of being SentIntoHiding. If the madwoman is instead a monster, see SupportingTheMonsterLovedOne. If the character has recently moved into a new house which is already occupied, or a person moves in secretly while someone else is living there obliviously, it's SecretSquatter.

Not to be confused with the company involved with the first season of ''Series/{{Smash}}.'' Or the episode of ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' which also [[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS3E3E4TheMadWomanInTheAttic borrows its name from the book]] (but isn't an example). And even more so, don't confuse with the BasementDweller, who is free to come and go as he pleases (even if he may have mental issues that make living on his own harder), and is not ([[PsychopathicManchild usually)]] a danger to himself or others.

Not to be confused with the company involved with the first season of ''Series/{{Smash}}.'' Or the episode of ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' which also [[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS3E3E4TheMadWomanInTheAttic borrows its name from the book]] (but isn't an example). And even more so, don't confuse with the BasementDweller, who is free to come and go as he pleases (even if he may have mental issues that prevent him from living on his own), and is not ([[PsychopathicManchild usually)]] a danger to himself or others.

Not to be confused with the company involved with the first season of ''Series/{{Smash}}.'' Or the episode of ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' which also [[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS3E3E4TheMadWomanInTheAttic borrows its name from the book]] (but isn't an example). And even more so, don't confuse with the BasementDweller, who is free to come and go as he pleases, and is not ([[PsychopathicManchild usually)]] a danger to himself or others.

* In Chapter 1 of ''{{VideoGame/Deltarune}}'', [[MonsterClown Jevil]] is locked away deep within the basement of Card Castle in an ominous area with an entirely different atmosphere to the rest of the place, and an elaborate and [[GuideDangIt trickily placed]] set of keys are spread across the land to keep a wall between him and the rest of the kingdom. Seam the shopkeeper is the only person who will speak of him (and only does so ''after'' the party find where he is) and can go on to explain that the harlequin was once their friend and the court jester, but after an encounter with a strange figure, he [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow learned information that shattered his worldview]] and fell into a dark nihilism, coming to treat their very world as a game [[AxCrazy and seeking to play it with violent stakes]] to cope until his old friend, now changed by the ordeal and living in solitude in their shop, had to seal him away. By the time the party encounter him, Jevil still speaks in playfully cryptic and foreboding terms and claims to be 'THE ONLY FREE ONE', and he will [[BossBattle gladly play with the party]] if they gather the keys and enter his little world.

This is when a character with mental illness, physical deformities, or a disease is locked away because they will never fit into society, usually either in the attic or in the basement. Sometimes the locked away person is a child who is a source of shame (e.g. incest). Despite the title, the person who is locked away may be male or female. The more of a BigFancyHouse, the better; in fact, the most complex ones will sometimes have a secret system of [[BookcasePassage secret doors]] (or [[SecretUndergroundPassage secret tunnels]]) so they can move around secretly as they please, and peepholes so they can [[CovertPervert covertly watch]] the household activities.

This is when a character with mental illness, physical deformities, or a disease is locked away because they will never fit into society, usually either in the attic or in the basement. Despite the title, the person who is locked away may be male or female. The more of a BigFancyHouse, the better; in fact, the most complex ones will sometimes have a secret system of [[BookcasePassage secret doors]] (or [[SecretUndergroundPassage secret tunnels]]) so they can move around secretly as they please, and peepholes so they can [[CovertPervert covertly watch]] the household activities.

In stories about this type of character, the protagonist is frequently an outsider, wondering what kind of bizarre secret the [[SmallTownTyrant Small Town Tyrants]] are keeping. The protagonist may [[TheUnsolvedMystery deduce the presence of a locked-away person]] from clues such as sounds or wondering where a missing person member might be. The Madwoman will then either tend to be [[TheDragon Dragon]]-type enemies with little personality of their own, or they're TheGrotesque, sympathetic victims. When done well, this can be an effective scare because it so aptly encapsulates the frightening insularity of the TownWithADarkSecret.

In stories about this type of character, the protagonist is frequently an outsider, wondering what kind of bizarre secret the [[SmallTownTyrant Small Town Tyrants]] are keeping. The protagonist may [[UnsolvedMystery deduce the presence of a locked-away person]] from clues such as sounds or wondering where a missing person member might be. The Madwoman will then either tend to be [[TheDragon Dragon]]-type enemies with little personality of their own, or they're TheGrotesque, sympathetic victims. When done well, this can be an effective scare because it so aptly encapsulates the frightening insularity of the TownWithADarkSecret.

In stories about this type of character, the protagonist is frequently an outsider, wondering what kind of bizarre secret the [[SmallTownTyrant Small Town Tyrants]] are keeping. The protagonist may deduce the presence of a locked-away person from clues such as sounds or wondering where a missing person member might be. The Madwoman will then either tend to be [[TheDragon Dragon]]-type enemies with little personality of their own, or they're TheGrotesque, sympathetic victims. When done well, this can be an effective scare because it so aptly encapsulates the frightening insularity of the TownWithADarkSecret.

In stories about this type of character, the protagonist is frequently an outsider, wondering what kind of bizarre secret the [[SmallTownTyrant Small Town Tyrants]] are keeping. The Madwoman will then either tend to be [[TheDragon Dragon]]-type enemies with little personality of their own, or they're TheGrotesque, sympathetic victims. When done well, this can be an effective scare because it so aptly encapsulates the frightening insularity of the TownWithADarkSecret.

Usually AxCrazy and/or TheGrotesque, and sometimes InbredAndEvil. Compare ManInTheIronMask. Non-consensual sub-trope of TheShutIn, and one possible form of being SentIntoHiding. If the madwoman is instead a monster, see SupportingTheMonsterLovedOne. If the character has recently moved into a new house which is already occupied, or a person moves in secretly while someone else is living there obliviously, it's SecretSquatter.

This is when a character with mental problems and/or physical deformities is locked away because they will never fit into society, usually either in the attic or in the basement. Despite the title, the person who is locked away may be male or female. The more of a BigFancyHouse, the better; in fact, the most complex ones will sometimes have a secret system of BookcasePassage secret doors (or SecretUndergroundPassage secret tunnels) so they can move around secretly as they please, and peepholes so they can CovertPervert covertly watch the household activities.

This trope is named for the landmark work of feminist literary criticism by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, referring to Mr. Rochester's wife in Creator/CharlotteBronte's ''Literature/JaneEyre''. The analysis indicates that this trope first popularly appeared, of all places, in Victorian women's literature, where depicting some [[HystericalWoman women as crazy people]] was an easy way to make female villains with whom readers would be unlikely to sympathize. Obviously, this plan was not a complete success.

This is when a character with mental problems and/or physical deformities is locked away because they will never fit into society, usually either in the attic or in the basement. Despite the title, the person who is locked away may be male or female. The more of a BigFancyHouse, the better; in fact, the most complex ones will sometimes have a secret system of BookcasePassages (or SecretUndergroundPassages) so they can move around secretly as they please, and peepholes so they can see the household activities.

This is when a character with mental problems and/or physical deformities is locked away because they will never fit into society, usually either in the attic or in the basement. Despite the title, the person who is locked away may be male or female. The more of a BigFancyHouse, the better; in fact, the most complex ones will sometimes have a secret system of BookcasePassage s (or SecretUndergroundPassage s) so they can move around secretly as they please, and peephole so they can see the household activities.

This is when a character with mental problems and/or physical deformities is locked away because they will never fit into society, usually either in the attic or in the basement. The more of a BigFancyHouse, the better; in fact, the smarter ones will sometimes have a secret system of peepholes and BookcasePassage so they can move around as they please.

This is when a character with mental problems and/or physical deformities is locked away because they will never fit into society, usually either in the attic or in the basement. The more of a BigFancyHouse, the better; in fact, the smarter ones will sometimes have a secret system of peepholes and secret passages so they can move around as they please.

* The mini-series ''Freaks Of The Heartland'' is told from the perspective of the normal brother of one of the several [[TheGrotesque Grotesques]] who've been locked away since the small town's BizarreBabyBoom years ago.

* TheJerseyDevil in ''Hoax Hunters'' was born a hideous monster, and grew up in the basement of a New Jersey orphanage. Two windows were built into the building just for him, covered with chicken wire, so he could see the sun and get fresh air.

* This is what happens to the two novices in ''The Hideout'' after one of them [[LoveMakesYouEvil killed her Mother Superior and two other old women to prove to her boyfriend she loved him]], and one of the women was the guy's mother, leaving him free to inherit. They didn't see anything wrong with any of that, though. [[spoiler: And the surviving one still doesn't.]]

** In [[http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/u.aspx "The Unnamable"]], what was kept in the attic was some super-vague... [[UltimateEvil thing]]; a HumanoidAbomination MixAndMatchCritter whose [[BrownNote appearance]] caused someone to GoMadFromTheRevelation. Its relationship to the people keeping it there was also vague. Then it had died and become [[EldritchAbomination even weirder]].

* Inverted in ''Film/NothingButTrouble'' with the two deformed, baby-looking grandsons of Judge Valkenheiser, Bobo and Debl whom he keeps in the junkyard and whom he refuses to let into the house and recognise as members of his already remarkably grotesque household. Also worthy of mention is that he is way more dangerous than them.

* Creator/DarioArgento's ''Film/{{Phenomena}}'' has one of these. He's a SerialKiller CreepyChild living in [[spoiler: the basement of the protagonist's teacher, who is his mother]].

In stories about this type of character, the protagonist is frequently an outsider, wondering what kind of bizarre secret the {{Corrupt Hick}}s are keeping. The Madwoman will then either tend to be [[TheDragon Dragon]]-type enemies with little personality of their own, or they're TheGrotesque, sympathetic victims. When done well, this can be an effective scare because it so aptly encapsulates the frightening insularity of the TownWithADarkSecret.

* In ''Film/HaroldAndKumarEscapeFromGuantanamoBay''. Harold and Kumar wind up in Alabama, and are befriended by an UglyGuyHotWife, who happen to be siblings. Their cycloptic, freaky, inbred son is kept in the basement when company comes over. They weren't {{Corrupt Hick}}s though, they were nice people, they just happened to follow BrotherSisterIncest and have TheGrotesque as a child.

** Literature/TheDunwichHorror, an invisible kept in the attic by CorruptHick Wilbur Whately (actually [[spoiler: his twin brother, but Wilbur [[HalfHumanHybrid looks more like their mother]]]]). The Horror eventually grows so large that Wilbur has to tear down the inside walls, nail the windows shut, and move himself into a shed.

* King George V of England's youngest son [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_John_of_the_United_Kingdom Prince John]] -- who was epileptic and 'mentally feeble' (probably autistic) was rumoured to have had this done to him. The truth was that from about seven (when the expectation would have normally been for him to go to boarding school) he lived with his nanny 'Lala' Biggs (who, like many Edwardian nannies, seems to have been deeply bonded with her charge, [[ParentalSubstitute more like a foster parent]] than a hired help) in a cottage in Sandringham Park, socialised with estate workers' children, and probably had a happier childhood than his healthy brothers. But because of the embarrassment of having a son with mental disabilities[[note]]plus epilepsy was still associated with insanity at the time[[/note]], his royal parents seem to have preferred to remain silent about his life[[note]]to the point of [[{{Unperson}} cutting him out of official family trees]][[/note]] rather than publicly address the rumours.[[note]]He is the Johnnie mentioned as a "sweet boy" in ''Film/TheKingsSpeech'' and has his own tv-miniseries, Stephen Poliakoff's ''The Lost Prince''.[[/note]]