Ned's Morality

As much as I’d like to blog about something other than the heroic or villainous quality of Ned Kelly’s character, this ambiguity is essential to the novel. As it is so important, I would like to make a few things about his morality clear.

First, this novel is not written by Ned Kelly; therefore, if we wanted to judge the actual character of the Ned Kelly, we would need historical information outside of this book. Since we have only this work of fiction, I am going to assume we are judging the character of Ned Kelly as he is portrayed in the novel, as we judged the purely fictional characters of Wieland and Clara.

Second, this novel is written retrospectively by the character of Ned Kelly. This is one reason it is difficult to imagine his morality changing, because he writes his history from his present perspective, and thus from the views of his present morality. As he remembers his childhood and looks back on his own history, it seems reasonable to assume if he imagines his morality incongruous, he himself would acknowledge it. So for one, at least as far as we have read, he has made no indication of a perceived shift in his morals.

Third, a change in morals (if one occurred at all) cannot be attributed to the environment. It is true, the situations Ned Kelly is presented with are morally convoluted and he is assaulted with difficult options that test his convictions continually. I think though, that one’s moral convictions, if they are indeed one’s moral convictions, are unwavering, despite the difficulty of the circumstance. To me, the difficulty of the decision within Ned Kelly is a conflict of what punishment is deserved (to him or to unfair opposition, such as the government) and what compensation and benefit is due to him and his family. As far as that goes, I do not think he has compensated those morals at all.

And finally, I think a lot of us (myself included) are inclined to project all of our own sense of morals into Ned Kelly’s character because he exemplifies a few characteristics of those morals (honesty, filial and family dedication, etc.), and so we assume he adheres to other common moral beliefs such as the belief that murder is always inexcusable, which he has not explicitly nor implicitly confirmed. In truth, he demonstrates consistently that he is prone to violence. Ned Kelly fought Patchy Moran for insulting his father (16), he concocted “gruesome punishments” for his uncle (47), and he fought the Handsome Man for insulting his mother (88). In fact, when he was only 15, he threatened to kill Bill Frost (108-109), and ended up shooting him in the gut (123) soon after. Though he very obviously feels remorse and regret about having had to kill, he also recognizes the inevitability of the decision, and does not think himself as someone who has compromised his morals.