ned kelly:hero or villain
...ty. ‘The Jerilderie Letter’ invokes a view of Ned Kelly that is a combination of sympathy, admiration and chivalry. One cannot help but feel that Kelly has been targeted by a corrupt police force who can find no better way to pass their time than to harass the Kelly family and fabricate misdemeanours so as to arrest Ned Kelly. If Ned is to be taken at his word, he is the wronged party, unknowingly accepting a stolen horse and subsequently being jailed for it: “Wright who was a stranger to me was in a hurry to get back to Mansfield and I gave him another mare and he told me if I found his mare to keep her until he brought mine back”. Outlaw, criminal, victim, hero, he is part of the spirit and character of Australia He is Australia’s most infamous bushranger. While time progresses and culture changes, the fascination with the Kelly story remains. Ned has, through his trademark iron helmet and his impassioned rhetoric, an extraordinary ability to hold our attention. The Kelly story has been told and re-told, elaborated and argued over and over again. The question is, is he a hero or a villain? For some people, he was a villain. He killed people. He destroyed lives. He was a thief and a murderer. The reasoning behind the acts does not e...