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Ned Kelly Essay

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Actor Discussion About a Representation of Justice with Relation to the Character of Ned Kelly

By Oliver Friendship and Ella Dittmar

Actor 1 (Oliver): Right then Ella, let’s just make sure that we are on the same page here. Our company, ‘Unearthed Voiced’, tours around secondary schools, adapting texts, and their characters, into contemporary plays. The current work we have been tasked with, is Peter Carey’s ‘The True History of the Kelly Gang’. The book is written by Carey from the perspective of the main protagonist; Ned Kelly. It is in the form of parcels of fictional letters ‘written’ by Carey’s Kelly, to the character’s young daughter; detailing his perspective on the major events of his life.

After reading through this work, and looking …show more content…

Carey shows his Kelly attempting to find some form of justification for his actions. He depicts him as someone who uses the supposed unjust acts committed against him, as validation and mitigation for what should only be described as heinous and unjust …show more content…

Ned Kelly’s pleas for true justice to end discrimination against poor Irish settlers eventually opened the eyes of people, and he came to symbolise a fight by a flawed hero for justice, liberty and the innocent. Images of Ned Kelly were even projected to a global audience during the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Therefore, showing Carey’s Kelly as an everyday man who was the victim of the unjust powers that be, is only logical. By doing so, we can harness and perpetuate the existing love and admiration for Ned Kelly’s legend that is present among the contemporary Australian populous. We must definitely show Carey’s Kelly, and this particular representation of justice, within a modern adaptation of the work. It’s a representation of justice that many nowadays Australians want to hear, and will therefore connect

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