Comparing Dantes Inferno and the Movie, What Dreams May...

Comparing Dantes Inferno and the Movie, What Dreams May Come The movies opening scene gives allusions to Dantes own life and his brief courtship with Beatrice. Chris (Robin Williams) begins, When I was young, I met this beautiful girl on a lake, just as Dante had met Beatrice when he was young. This lake just happens to be on the boarder of Switzerland and Italy, Dantes native country. Anna, Chris love, finds him sitting on a hillside overlooking that lake, and that scene will become a major focus for the rest of the movie. They believe that they are soul mates, and unlike Dante and Beatrice, Chris and Anna marry and have two children. Set in modern times, a series of mortal tragedies unlocks a series of immortal†¦show more content†¦While standing outside the walls of a city in this heaven, she covers his eyes, just as Virgil does to Dante when faced with Medusa outside Dis, the capital of hell. Dressed in black, instead of his usual saintly white attire, Albert delivers the bad news. Anna, so filled with guilt, has committed suicide, so now she can never join Chris in Heaven. This starts the journey where Chris goes through hell to find his beloved (Like Dante- kind of). Even though Albert warns him that this has never been done, Albert lets Chris go because he realizes that they are soul-mates, just as Dante thought he and Beatrice were meant to be together. As they prepare to leave heaven, a man who looks like Freud accompanies them. The three of them venture into hell, and they tell Chris to try not to abandon all hope (cf., the inscription over Dantes gate to hell) and try not to lose his mind. They are now on the river Styx, and they enter an artists rendition of Canto 8. They are pulled off the boat by the dead bodies (cf., the wrathful) trying to attack them in the water. The boat flips over, and they somehow manage to get to shore. I dont remember if the scene Im about to describe occurs before or after the Styx scene. The Rebellious Angels guard Dis in Dante, but here it seems to be guarded by the sinners in Round one of Circle seven: the violent against their neighbors. At this point, Chris realizes that the