SOURCE: Wailes, Stephen L. “Immurement and Religious Experience in the Stricker's ‘Eingemauerte Frau.’” Beiträge zur Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache und Literatur 96, nos. 1-2 (1974): 79-102.

In the following essay, Wailes discusses the moral-didactic orientation of der Stricker's tale “Die eingemauerte Frau,” considering historical examples of devout women who underwent immurement for spiritual reasons and noting the pragmatic example this story presents on the subject of marital obedience.

The Stricker, like Chaucer, has his Marriage Group. Among the Mären treating the marital relationship, “Die eingemauerte Frau” is noteworthy for the intensity of religious discussion and also for the sensationalism of plot. A wife who persists in disobeying her husband despite brutal punishment is walled into a chamber by him and cut off from all human society; visited by the Holy Spirit and repentant at last, she confesses to a priest, is released by the husband, and seems to...