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{{trope}}
[[File:
A stock visual metaphor, if you will. Some people (usually a man and woman pair) are separated by a wall, window, or other barrier. The wall is obviously an obstacle, but not the whole of the obstacle; the couple are prevented from uniting by some other means which the wall represents, either a physical cage or cell of some sort, or some form of emotional separation, like a relationship problem.
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Not to be confused with any variation of the [[Fourth Wall]].
See [[Closed Door Rapport]] for when one party tries to talk to the other after being shut out. See also [[Window Love]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[
* There's one scene in the second arc of ''[[Pokémon Special]]''. Red has just shown up, and Yellow and his Pika, who have been searching for him, frantically beat at the strange, one-way mirror wall hoping to get his attention. {{spoiler|They don't.}}
* ''[[Dragonaut]]'' deserves mention here, during the episode in which {{spoiler|Toa has gotten briefly captured by Prince Asim Jamar and Jin goes to rescue her}}.
* In one chapter of ''[[
* In episode 5 of ''[[Anime/Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch|Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'', Kaito has a meeting with the mermaid Lucia (who he doesn't recognize) when she was in an aquarium and he on the outside. She begs him to find her soon since she cannot tell him who she is unless he figures out himself. Then they kiss with their lips and hands touching the glass.
== Film ==
* The Japanese film ''Kikareta Onna No Mirareta Yoru'', translated as "Man, Woman & The Wall".
* Variant in ''[[Hedwig and The Angry Inch]]''- Hansel and Luthor (an American stationed in East Germany) are both on the East side of the Berlin Wall but in order to cross over and move with him to America, Hansel must become Hedwig to marry him. The song "Angry Inch" details the botched sex change operation, and the song "Tear Me Down" explicitly compares Hedwig to the wall itself- "Ladies and gentlemen, Hedwig is like that wall! Standing before you in a divide between East and West, slavery and freedom, man and woman, top and bottom."
* The famous Siren dance in the original ''[[The Wicker Man]]''.
* The ending of ''[[Star Trek II:
* In the movie ''[[It Happened One Night]]'' a spoiled heiress runs away from her controlling father. [[Nationwide Manhunt]] occurs. A newspaper reporter finds her. They are forced by circumstances to stay in a hotel room over night and the reporter hangs a sheet to preserve her reputation.
** They even call it the Wall of Jericho. And we all know what happened to [[Meaningful Name|that wall]].
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* ''[[Bound]]'', with Corky and Violet in adjacent apartments.
* ''[[Being John Malkovich]]'' features this trope in a puppet show about Peter Abelard and Heloise.
*
* In the Turkish movie ''İncir Reçeli'', the lead romantic couple has only one kiss, and that is from the opposite sides of a glass barrier either of them could easily circumvent. {{spoiler|The reason for this is because the girl has been HIV-positive since birth, and does not want to infect the boy. She explains that while there has only been one documented case of HIV infection through a kiss, and only because the transmitter had a heavy case of bleeding gums, she does not want to risk it.}}
* The film version of ''[[Little Shop of Horrors]]'' ends its opening number, "Skid Row", with Seymour and Audrey standing on either side of a building corner, just out of sight of each other.
== Literature ==
* In a nod to ''Pyramus
** Pyramus and Thisbe themselves, who can only communicate through the literal wall separating their parent's properties. It comes from Roman writer Ovid, making this trope [[Older Than Feudalism]].
* In ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]'', Maximilien and Valentine, another pair of star-crossed lovers also have to communicate through a hole in the wall; the chapter is titled "Pyramus and Thisbe".
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== Live-Action TV ==
* In the season 2 finale of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Doctor and Rose press themselves against the same wall, which {{spoiler|unfortunately happens to be in different universes for each of them.}} So they manage to occupy the same spot while still being unable to communicate or connect.
** Happens again in [[Doctor Who/Recap/S32
* ''[[Pushing Daisies]]'' does this with Ned and Chuck, representative of the fact that they are unable to touch each other. He's lying on the couch in the living room and she's in the bedroom around the corner.
* Jack and Kate do this on ''[[Lost]]'' when they are captives of the Others and being held separately, after she is brought in to see him while he is being held in a room with a glass wall.
* In the ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' season 4 episode "Upgrades", Carter and O'Neill are stuck on opposite sides of a force field when the bracelets giving them superpowers fail and the place is about to explode. This sets up everything in "Divide and Conquer".
* In ''[[Fresh Meat]]'' Howard's and Josie's rooms are separated by a thin plaster board. A little bonus, there's a glory hole through which they sometimes talk through. Howard even does a piece of interpretive drama about this predicament entitled "Wall Man".
* Lee Adama and Kara Thrace end up sitting back-to-back against a firing-range barrier in ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* ''[[
* On ''[[The Borgias]]'', one of Cesare's early meetings with Ursula (the main image) is in a [[Confessional]] during which much is made of the wall between them.
== Music ==
* According to some, [[David Bowie]]'s
** In detail: his actual inspiration (as it turns out) was his (American) producer Tony Visconti embracing his (West German) mistress Antonia Maaß in front of the Wall (both safely living on the Western side, thank you very much). This (it seems) they regarded as quasi-heroic: love next to a symbol of oppression, how romantic! Bowie wasn't impressed (the lyrics are actually quite ironic when you think about it, particularly when you consider the scare quotes around the title), not least because the studio in question was the famous Hansa-by-the-Wall, which was exactly what it said it was: right next to the Wall. In other words: (1) Dude, you're cheating on your wife and (2) you pretend it's all heroic and crap because you're doing it next to the Berlin Wall...but you ''work'' next to the Berlin Wall. Stop fooling yourself.
* The video for the Marillion song "Kayleigh," on the other hand, definitely plays this straight, again with the Berlin Wall.
* Featured in the "Walking After You" video by the [[
== Theatre ==
* Parodied with Pyramus and Thisbe from ''[[A Midsummer
* The entire first act of ''[[The Fantasticks]]'', in which two lovers are prevented from seeing each other due to their parents' wishes. (Those wishes, subversively enough, being to make them [[Forbidden Fruit]] to each other so that they will fall in love and marry.)
== Video Games ==
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== Web Animation ==
* ''[[Draw With Me]]'' is a textbook example of this, but they find a way to communicate anyways.
== Web Original ==
* Billy and Penny in ''[[Dr.
== Western Animation ==
* An old, 90's era CGI short film had a globe/universe divided into sky and ocean by a solid crystal barrier. A school of fish swam beneath and a flock of birds flew above. When one fish and bird see each other, they become friends/fall in love, but are frustrated by the crystal separating them. The bird flies to the highest reaches of the sphere and dives down, crashing through the crystal and allowing all the other birds and fish to mingle. The fish who fell in love nudges the prone body, hoping for life, when thankfully the bird perks up and they both embrace face to face.
* That scene in ''[[The Simpsons Movie]]'' count when the family escapes from the dome Springfield has been put in and Lisa is separated from her love interest (although they could still see each other).
* The scene in ''[[
== Real Life ==
* In the vein of David Bowie's song further up the page, this tended to happen a lot when the [[Berlin Wall]] was up. In a History Channel documentary covering this time period and people who tried to get across, about half (at least) of the stories were the [[Zany Scheme
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Love Tropes]]
[[Category:Separated
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