Enter Stage Window



"David: No, wait... Can we meet after work? Fatima: Our families hate each other... David: I don't care. Let me come to your balcony tonight to annoy your parents and neighbors by singing you a really overdramatic song about feelings and love."

- West Bank Story

Someone—often the Girl Next Door, though not necessarily—enters the hero's house by climbing in their bedroom window. This can be done via ladder, trellis, close-standing tree, or some other, more obscure method. In some cases, there's a good reason for this: they're sneaking in, or the more traditional entrances are somehow blocked. Often, though, it seems like they do it just because it seems cool. Though found in many kinds of fiction, this trope is particularly prevalent in television.

Sister trope to There Was a Door. Contrast Bedsheet Ladder, which is for the person inside getting out. For the glass shattering Dynamic Entry variant, see Fast Roping.

Anime & Manga
"Dr. Tofu: (referring to Ranma) So, tell me. Did we have a visitor last night? Akane: Uh-huh. Through the window. Dr. Tofu: *laughs* Yep, that's pretty much what I thought."
 * The Girl Next Door does this in Hand Maid May, with a ladder from her window to the male lead's room.
 * Aeru climbs into Neveril's quarters this way in Simoun. This was more dangerous than usual as this was on board sky airship in the middle of flight.
 * Ranma ½: You'd be surprised at how many times Ranma has entered Akane's room through her window. In fact, he's done it so much that you almost expect it after a while.


 * Of course, Ranma as a rule doesn't seem to see any clear distinction between windows and doors. Probably comes of having almost as free a range of motion in the third dimension as in the more normal two.
 * Hitsugaya enters Ichigo's house this way in Bleach, and criticizes his subordinates for their entry method. They came in through the skylight.

Film

 * In D.E.B.S., Lucy Diamond sneaks into Amy's room in the D.E.B.S. house twice by climbing up the outside wall using suction cups and coming in through the window.
 * Subverted in the film version of Kick-Ass, when the hero enters his crush's bedroom window—and she maces him.
 * Crazily enough, subverted in Troll 2. The girl who is in her house working out flips out and owns the guy (her boyfriend). Complete with horrible acting.
 * Sky High has the Girl Next Door love interest meet the hero on a tree by his window. Significant in that her superpower is control over plants.
 * Jenny does this habitually in Forrest Gump.
 * In High School Musical Troy climbs onto Gabriella's balcony in both the first and third movies. By the third it's implied that he's done it often; she has a basket on a rope ready to go down when he calls her. It's even written into their show.
 * Lorenzo does this in the 2004 movie version of The Merchant of Venice. The original play doesn't call for him to climb up to Jessica's window at all, making it 100% Rule of Cool.

Fairy Tales

 * "Rapunzel" is a sort of archetypical example.

Literature

 * In Twilight, Edward climbs a tree to get into Bella's bedroom. Though she doesn't know at first, this later becomes an almost daily routine for their relationship.
 * In Midnight Sun, we learn that Edward has turned this stalking up to 11 by bringing oil along so the window won't squeak.
 * Jacob does it in New Moon, but at least he asks first.
 * In The Season, Alex enters Gavin's house this way, but to warn him of an evil plot.
 * The protagonist of The Yiddish Policemens Union does this to get into his ex-wife's bedroom, recalling how he used to sneak in that way when they were dating. It's not as romantic as the ideal, though, as he says that he's not as young as he used to be and after he's scaled the wall to her house, foreplay begins with her cleaning his bloody shins.
 * In Dear Zoe, Tess and her boyfriend live next door to each other, and have bedrooms with windows that face each other; they climb in each other's windows from each other's windows.
 * Margo does this, frequently, to Q in Paper Towns.
 * Happens twice in Maurice. In the first part of the book Maurice climbs into Clive's room, then in the second part Scudder climbs into Maurice's room.

Live Action TV
"Clarissa's Dad: Why doesn't that kid ever use the door?"
 * In early seasons of Dawson's Creek, Joey (sometimes others, but mostly Joey) climbed a ladder into Dawson's bedroom.
 * As seen in the page picture, Sam of Clarissa Explains It All always enters Clarissa's house via a ladder at her window. *clunk* "Hi, Sam." *guitar riff*


 * Occasionally Lampshaded on Boy Meets World, when Shawn would sometimes climb up a tree into his Heterosexual Life Partner Cory's bedroom.
 * Corey would also climb into Topanga's room through the window.
 * Angel on Buffy for a while.
 * Buffy typically departed from and returned to her house this way, before her mother knew she was The Slayer.
 * At one point, she climbs in through her window, informs Angel that her mother isn't home, and is then at a loss when asked why she didn't just use the door.
 * Donna does this with Eric in at least one early episode of That '70s Show.
 * iCarly: Samantha Puckett is known for breaking in the home of her best friend Carly Shay, by using the fire escape into her bedroom.
 * That one might just be Fanon. However, Mandy barged back in the Shay loft to stay there overnight in one of her episodes. When Carly asked her how she entered with the door locked, Mandy replied "but not all your windows are."
 * On Drake and Josh, Josh visits Mindy this way.
 * In House, Wilson seems to have a bit of an obsession with climbing through windows. In the premiere of season 6, he gets into House's apartment through his window after he refuses to answer the door. Then, he brings Chinese food to Cuddy's while . After   while the two are supposed to be watching her, they try to solve the situation before Cuddy finds out. When Cuddy comes home during their planning, Wilson escapes by climbing out a window.
 * House: "You're telling me to do the right thing while climbing out a window?!"
 * He also tells Cuddy, "Just say the word, and we will climb out that window right now" when she's upset over her
 * He may have an obsession with windows in general. He tends to throw things at them when he becomes angry, either at House during an argument, or at a random guy who wouldn't stop playing the same song over and over.
 * On Glee, Rachel enters Puck's room this way in a dream (it is, in fact, how he knows that he's dreaming).
 * Rose regularly climbs over the side of the deck outside Charlie's house in Two and A Half Men, and one gets the distinct impression she does it MORE when he's NOT there.
 * In Chuck it's kind of a running joke. Chuck's friend Morgan always climbs through his window whenever he comes to visits Chuck, for absolutely no reason. He even calls it "The Morgan Door".
 * This is how Zack and Jessie generally visit each other. All other visits bypass the front door and go directly to room.
 * On Doogie Howser, M.D.: Doogie's best friend Vinnie enters Doogie's bedroom this way in nearly every episode (before Doogie moved into his own loft space in season 4).
 * CeCe and Rocky of Shake It Up live in the same apartment building. As such, Rocky usually enters via the fire escape.
 * Something of a staple on The Vampire Diaries: vampires are constantly entering through Elena's bedroom window, and Matt inexplicably enters Caroline's house through her window in one episode.
 * A freerunner on one of the CSI shows used this technique to get into his girlfriend's room, despite her father's furious attempts to keep him away from her. It worked until.
 * In Victorious episode "The Bird Scene", Sikowitz suggested that Tori enter through the window.
 * He's entered and exited through that window a couple times (including the extended version of the pilot).
 * At least one episode of Small Wonder had Reggie enter Jamie's (presumably second-story) bedroom through the window.
 * Non-romantic variant in Welcome Back, Kotter, with the Sweathogs dropping in on their favorite teacher via his living room window. He wasn't bothered by it, but his wife was.

Music

 * She came in through the bathroom window

Theater

 * Romeo and Juliet: The balcony scene leads to both an entrance and exit through the window.
 * And of course, the corresponding scene in West Side Story with a fire escape rather than a vine or tree.
 * Parodied in West Bank Story, leading to the page quote.
 * In On the Twentieth Century, Oscar Jafee boards the titular train through the window.

Webcomics

 * In Ears for Elves, the Temple of Herunor's doors have been sealed by the druids. In Tanna's words, though, they always seem to forget the window. It's strongly implied that Tanna and Rolan will enter through the window.

Western Animation
"Pac-Man: Next time, try using the door. Morris: I prefer windows. You don't have to wipe your feet, just your face."
 * In As Told by Ginger, Darren occasionally entered Ginger's room through the window, even when they were Just Friends.
 * Ellie in Up would climb into young Carl 's bedroom window.
 * On My Life as a Teenage Robot, Brad tends to come in Jenny's window this way. He, in fact, coaches Sheldon on using a ladder rather than climbing a tree.
 * In Disney's Aladdin, Aladdin flies up onto the balcony of Jasmine's bedroom with his magic carpet.
 * The oddest thing is, Jasmine isn't even wondering how he got up there.
 * She's too pissed off at the moment to care. When Aladdin goes to leave by jumping back off the balcony, she freaks out sufficiently.
 * Perhaps princes in the area are just generally known to be extremely acrobatic.
 * Aladdin jumps in and out of windows fairly often, especially in the "One Jump Ahead" sequence.
 * In the Pac-Man episode "Invasion of the Pac-Pups", Morris entered Pac-Man's house this way.