What Dreams May Come Reflection

After weeks of Dante's Inferno presentations and watching What Dreams May Come, it has become apparent to me the similarities and differences between their ideas of Heaven and Hell. After studying Dante Alighieri and the nine circles of hell he created, I've decided that Dante must have been very ill in the head and a very cruel person. The severity of the punishments he created and his hatred toward many types of people was over the top. Only people with cold hearts and evil souls could create the intense torture systems that Dante did. What Dreams May Come focused more on the beauty of Heaven and the powerful idea of soul mates rather than the levels and punishments in Hell. In Dante's Inferno there was much focus on the physical body and the pain the body feels. Hurting of the physical body was the main focus in every punishment and the sinners were in the same body as they had on Earth which made them recognizable to Dante and Virgil throughout their journey in Hell. In What Dreams May Come the body is very insignificant and the person's soul is what is focused on. When Chris enters Heaven he is greeted by a man recognizable as Albert, a medical mentor he had when he was an intern. Albert is actually Ian, Chris's son, but because the body is insignificant, the soul can choose to resemble the body of anybody they want. The reason Ian chose the body of Albert is because Chris always looked up and talked so highly of him; Ian always wanted his dad to think of him as a great man. Later on, Chris meets an Asian women named Leona in Heaven, who is actually is daughter, Marie. Marie chose to resemble this women in her afterlife because of a comment Chris made about how Asian women as the most beautiful and intelligent. Marie wanted to be what her father liked.

The differences in the Hell in Dante's Inferno and What Dreams May Come is that in Dante's Inferno the sinner does not have the choice of their punishment and the Hell for every soul looks the same. In What Dreams May Come every Hell and Heaven is personalized. In Chris's wife's Hell she is trapped in a sea of faces with no mobility below her neck. Because her fear on Earth was being lost by Chris and just blending in with the rest of the world, her punishment fit that. The same is true with Heaven in the way it is a personalized place, but each person's is customized to their liking. In Dante's Inferno once a person is in Hell they are stuck there for eternity. In What Dreams May Come Chris moves from Heaven to Hell in a quest to save his soul mate, Annie. Annie ends up leaving Hell with Chris so they can live together.