Why did Ned Kelly choose to be a villain?

Answer 1

Kelly was twelve when his father died, and he was subsequently required to leave school to take on the new position as head of the family. Shortly after this, the Kellys moved to Glenrowan. As a teenager, Ned became involved in petty crimes, regularly targetting the wealthy landowners.

The story goes that Ned Kelly was influenced to become a bushranger. His family was not particularly liked by the law, and so when he was persecuted by a few of the policemen, he reacted and decided to become an outlaw. He figured that if he was going to be charged for something, he would give them a real reason.

Kelly became a protege to another bushranger, Harry Power who was a notorious bushranger of Victoria, originally transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1841 for stealing shoes. Upon his release, he continued his life of crime, which landed him in Pentridge Gaol. He became a bushranger when he escaped from Pentridge in 1869. At first he worked solo, but decided after while that he would like an accomplice. A friend of his named Jack Lloyd had a nephew, Ned Kelly, just 15 years old and already embittered by frequent run-ins with the police. Lloyd recommended the young Ned Kelly to Harry Power. Power became a mentor to Ned Kelly, taking him on as an apprenctice in 1870, and teaching him the finer points of bushranging.

Ned Kelly gradually progressed to crimes of increasing seriousness and violence, including bank robbery and murder, soon becoming a hunted man.