Lewis undertook his first imitatio, or recycling and rewriting, of this passage (for The Great Divorce) in order to explore what would have happened if a Dante-like figure (in this case the Tragedian) had not come to make a deep confession. The second time Lewis rewrote the final canti of Purgatorio, though, he did so in order to portray an intensely personal I-Thou moment of unveiling: the judgment of Orual.
