"To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come?"

Dante's Inferno and What Dreams May Come are two very interesting takes on the afterlife. They bear some striking resemblances. Of course, the main difference between they two is that What Dreams May Come deals with not only hell, but heaven, a subject matter not expressed by Dante until his Paradiso. The portrayal of heaven in What Dreams May Come is interesting, in respects to how it deals with 'breaking the news' in a way to the dead soul; starting off with witnessing scenes involving and as a result of the death, and then taking some aspect or passionate aspect of the life and using that as a middle ground before fully being exposed to heaven, in all its majesty; Dante's souls just end up there after their death, like waking up after a long night of partying in some strange place. It's also interesting to see how the house of Chris and Annie is also incorporated into their own personal heavens and hells. The house is an amplified to the maximum positive in Chris's heaven, while it's dilapidated and broken in Annie's hell.

In addition, it is also of note the nature of the two portrayals of heaven and hell. Dante's hell is divided by the actions people did in life, the sins they committed alone dictating the position and punishment of everyone there. At it's most basic level it is judgement based off of actions, and punishment assuming the nature of the actions. In What Dreams May Come, the punishments are more specific. The location in hell is based off of the action, but the judgement, nature, and severity of the punishment is based off of the individual itself. Each punishment is specifically tailored to the subtleties and nuances of each person, rather than a blanket punishment for all people who acted somewhat similarly. And then, in the heaven portrayal of What Dreams May Come, it starts off in a personalized version of heaven, and then as one becomes acclimated, they go and see all the others living in the same place in the blanket fashion of Dante. But the thing about it is, there can never be a perfect paradise with more than one person in it. Every single person's perceived perfection is different. They prefer different things, enjoy different surroundings, listen to different music, eat different food, everything. In order for there ever to be a perfect world, there must be no one else there for which it is perfect. That's why the place Chris begins is the real heaven: he exists in a world created by himself, for himself, that for himself is perfect. But of course his loved ones are not there, and so of course it can never be completely perfect. So the classic portrayals of heaven, including the one in What Dreams May Come, is not heaven at all. The only possible thing that could exist is hell. That is why Dante delves so deeply into its various aspects, more than heaven or purgatory.