Comparison and Analysis of "What Dreams May Come" and "Dante's Inferno"

Two Visions of HellDante Alighieri 's epic poem the Inferno and director Vincent Wards movie, What Dreams May Come each depict the vision of an afterlife in Hell. What Dreams May Come is a movie about a man named Chris, who goes to heaven after he dies. Chris children have also died in a previous car crash and his wife committed suicide. In Inferno, Dante is guided through the nine rings of Hell by the legendary poet, Virgil.

The types of Hell created in the book and movie are very different in the structure. Dantes view of Hell is much more divided. Everything is standardized and designated rings for certain crimes are present for all sinners. An example would be Circle Seven. In this Circle resides those who were violent yet there are many little subdivisions that include violent against God, art, nature, self and neighbor. Each subdivision has its own punishment. The movies vision of Hell is much more subjective than Dantes objective vision. In, What Dreams May Come, Chris wife Annie shows that her vision of Hell is one in which she is without her husband and children. She is in her home on earth yet everything is vapid, dull and lifeless. In the Inferno, the suicides are located in Circle Seven among the violent against self subdivision. The punishment that they receive is not their fear but determined by Minos. Suicides in the Inferno are turned into trees and eaten by Harpies who painfully eat their leaves for eternity. The Suicides can only speak when they are bleeding from being eaten. Just as they have defiled the body that God gave them on earth, they are given no body and are a tree.

In both the Inferno and What Dreams May Come, the common theme of student and teacher is evident throughout. In the movie, Chris is led through Hell with the help of one of his old friends when he was alive, Albert. Albert is disguised as an old white man and is Chris escort through Hell. While on earth, Albert was Chris medical teacher but in their afterlife, Albert is Chris friend. This same type of relationship occurs in the Inferno. Dante is led through the rings of Hell by Virgil who represents human reason. As the story progresses, Virgil becomes both a teacher and a friend to Dante. This is shown in Canto 23 when the two are being chases by the Fiends after the bedlam that occurred at the great pit filled with a kind of boiling tar. Virgil picks Dante up like he is his son and races with him down the hill out of the area that the Fiends are restricted to. Throughout their journey, their relationship grows closer.

A main difference in these two works is the nature of the journey for Chris and Dante. Chris is already dead and chooses to go to Hell to find his wife Annie. Dantes trip was divinely ordained and he is still alive in Hell. Dante represents human kind and is sent to be taught an important and valuable lesson.

The one quality that all classic works of literature share is their timelessness. Dante Alighieri 's Inferno deserves to be in that type of class along with the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and the Iliad. The Inferno is a very insightful book that gives you vivid and detailed descriptions of the rings of hell along with famous people who are there such as Alexander the Great. I like the book very much and think that it is on par with the movie. What Dreams May Come is a great movie that gives an alternative view of Hell. It is kind of sad but would have to be one of the most intelligent, emotional, visually beautiful, and well acted projects ever to grace the screen. Those who have experience deeply meaningful experiences beyond the world of physical senses see these images and concepts as actual possibilities, and rightly so. In a world where time and space lose all definition in physical terms, incomprehensible and mystifying beauty become the reality. But then, who is qualified to define "reality"?BIBLIOGRAPHYDante Alighieri: Cantica I: Hell. Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers. New York: Penguin Books, 1949.

What Dreams May Come (1998)

Bibliography: ante Alighieri: Cantica I: Hell. Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers. New York: Penguin Books, 1949. What Dreams May Come (1998)