Human nature often inhibits the full potential of a person and prevents him or her from achieving perfection. Humanity as a race is imperfect, as with any other being in the world, yet there are certain aspects of the human race that the simple imperfection of humanity cannot fully prevent. Humans have an endless amount of determination if there is ample hope, they have a complete unwillingness to accept death, and most prevalent and important, they have an immeasurable greed for knowledge and the power that it contains. Victor Frankenstein from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Oedipus from Sophocles’ play “Oedipus the King” both do their best to outmatch their humanity and perpetually gain as much knowledge and intellect that they can. However, they both feign a powerful wisdom and intellect when in reality they are the blindest characters in their respective novels. Firstly, within Frankenstein, Victory is constantly chasing higher knowledge. The whole basis for his creation is his endless pursuit of education in natural philosophy. Even in the face of adversity from his family, friends, teachers, and the physical laws of nature, he pursues his visions. He even describes his own guile and conviction when he claims, “...I was left to struggle with a child’s blindness, added to a student’s thirst for knowledge” (Shelley …show more content…
Even though their success quickly ends in terror and agony, their hunger for knowledge is sedated as they come to realize the horrific truths of their lives. Human imperfection does nothing to stop their acquisition of knowledge. Knowledge is power after all, and once they attain this power they soon learn to regret their original passions. Nature has a way of balancing the world in the end, no matter the consequences, and this becomes only more evident by the end of both