Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination, emotional abuse, sexual violence, and death.

This theme is explored through the protagonist and narrator, Auren. In real-world abusive relationships, the sense of captivity is often emotional or symbolic in nature, but in Gild, Kennedy depicts captivity in its most literal form: an actual cage. This stylistic choice allows her to examine the impacts of intense abuse in its most extreme forms; just as abusive relationships are often concealed beneath romantic language and charm, Auren’s literal cage is also dressed up with golden beauty and luxury accommodations. Yet, as Auren cynically states in Chapter 2, “a cage is a cage, no matter how gilded” (22). Her words demonstrate that on one level, Auren fully understands that her captivity is harmful and wrong, even as she claims that she chose to hide in a cage and prefers its safety to the threats of the outside world.

Auren’s initial preference to remain in her cage rather than facing the world’s threats stands as a crucial component of the psychological impact of captivity. Though Auren herself is unaware of the fact, the