What's with the bird cages?

Have you noticed that beside owls (see my "Owls everywhere!" post), bird cages are often used as decorative element too? So what's with this massive use of bird cages?

 I think they are very poetical. They are the ultimate incarnation of the pessimistic feelings of imprisonment, of feeling trapped, of enclosure but at the same time of positive feelings like the will for freedom, of safeness . Who doesn't feel so?

I'd like to share with you these few lines I once wrote for a school essay, comparing the life of a bird in its cage with a human's:

"A bird can see through the cage, but cannot interact with the outside world. It can only see it, feel it, breathe it.. and hopes that outside world it so much craves for, will interact with it someday. Sometimes the bird sings, like a human scream, but no one really hears and when someone does, they just tell the bird to shut up. Though, the bird is safe in its cage and when someone finally opens the cage, the bird rarely flies out. Almost like a human being who's afraid to face life. Like a child who keeps his mother's hand thight and is afraid to let it go to start facing life alone.."

I think that's why people relate much to birdcages and that's why they are used so much.

and before I forget, here are for you to see some inspiring beautiful gothic pictures featuring birdcages:

"Madre" by Natalie Shau

♥