he Afterlife"). For Williams' character, Chris, his paradise was living in one of his wife Annie's paintings. But the same theory holds true for Annie in hell. Annie is not in her place in hell because she has been deemed by Minos to be a suicide and assigned her level; she exists there because she has made a hell of her own. Her hell is living in a world without her husband and children, which she tried to escape through committing suicide but lives on in due to her own self-loathing and guilt.One central difference between these two works is the nature of Chris and Dante's travel into the inferno. While Chris has already died and gone to heaven, Dante is still living. Chris leaves heaven and descends into hell for his own purpose of bringing his soul mate, Annie, back. Chris had a choice as to if he wanted to go down to hell but Dante did not. His trip was divinely ordained and orchestrated. His reason in going is because he has been wandering from the "True Way" and has been sent to be taught an important and valuable lesson.In both works, there is the common relationship of student to teacher. In What Dreams May Come, Chris locates a "tracker" to assist him in his journey to hell to find Annie. This tracker is Albert, a man who Chris studied under as a medical student and has a great deal of love and respect for. However, Chris does not know that this tracker is his old mentor. In the film, Albert states "thought is real and physical is the illusion." He is not in the bodily form that Chris recognized him as on Earth. He has assumed the form of an elderly white man and does not identify himself to Chris until a crucial point in the film. In life, he was Chris' mentor but in the afterlife, he is his friend and escort. A similar relationship of student to mentor exists in the Inferno between Dante and Virgil. Virgil, as a poet, has inspired Dante and his works greatly. Upon meeting him, Dante says "For you are my true master and first...
