The Route from Hubert Selby Jr.’s Requiem for a Dream to Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream

Abstract

This article intends to illustrate Darren Aronofsky’s recasting of several key
aspects of Hubert Selby Jr.’s Requiem for a Dream into the language of film, including its
echoes to a particular work, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, which resonate as well through
the director’s take on the character’s road to damnation. In the hopes of fulfilling an
American Dream turned to Nightmare, the novel and the film reverse the course of Dante’s
quest, as the promised paradise of drug abuse becomes the beginning of a journey spiraling
downwards into addiction, isolation and suffering.