Alex Crook
Mrs. Loupe
English II A3 10 May 2010
Hooded Outlaw
Outlaws are shunned by the people and out casted from the community to keep from being caught by the law. Robin Hood was an outlaw. However, he was not the normal outlaw that kills anything, takes anything, or does everything for only for themselves. Robin Hood was an outcast hiding from the law, but there were many people that loved him for the acts that he made to protect them against what they viewed was an unjust government. He was loved by the poor and shunned by the rich. Robin Hood, an outlawed hero in the 1300s, has a legendary history, driven by his unyielding values for justice and desire for balance in social classes, with ideals that have lived on till this day.
Robin Hood’s legendary background is well known throughout the world. The author of Robin Hood is unknown. It is most likely a story that the poor told about a man that stole their money back from the rich. Over the centuries, the common people passed this story by word of mouth such that the story grew to be that of a man, Robin Hood, who stood up for something that was wrong in society. This story stayed alive by the affection that the people had for someone who stood up for them, thus the legend grew and grew. After all of these centuries, the author of the story has become the oppressed people that Robin Hood protected and fought for against a greedy government. He originated in the English culture and is known for his devotion to the poor. Robin Hood would rob the rich and give what he robbed to the poor. Most of the time, Robin Hood was robbing the sheriff or the law of Nottingham of the taxes they took from the poor. However, how did Robin Hood become an outlaw?
Robin Hood was from a poor family and needed money. He would take any chance or job to earn money. Robin Hood was eighteen when a shooting match was announced. He claimed to be the best archer in the land, “my bow and ekemine arrows are as good as thine; and I’ll hold the best of you twenty marks that I hit the clout at three-score rods” (Pyle 5). The foresters were making Robin Hood angry by saying he could not win. Robin Hood’s ego was so angry that he made a bet that he could shoot a deer. The foresters could not believe it and agreed to the bet. Robin Hood immediately killed a deer with one arrow that struck straight to the heart of the animal. The foresters were in awe; they did not want to pay him so they said he killed the King’s deer. Robin’s heart was bitterly angry, for his blood boiled (Pyle 7). In anger, Robin Hood strung his bow and let the arrow fly at these men. The arrow was shot deep into a heart and one of the foresters bled out as he died. Robin Hood was shunned for it, thus he became an outlaw running to the forest for safety.
Robin Hood’s values clearly show through his actions. He believed in equality among social classes, fairness, and justice for every person. Stealing from the rich and giving to the poor was what Robin Hood did throughout his life and eventually died for. Robin Hood “surrounded himself with other good by unfairly treated men” as he lived in Sherwood Forest (Hunsinger). The law was making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Robin Hood made a stand against the law that had treated him unfairly, and he saw that other common folk were also unfairly treated by the law. Robin Hood’s tales were “reflected in the anti-noble, anti-law themes found in” his legend of robbing the rich and giving to the poor (UXL Encyclopedia of World Mythology 893). He swore to help others that were being treated poorly. Therefore, his actions reflected the basic fairness that he believed all should be granted.
In his actions of providing equality to the social classes throughout the lands, he wanted justice. He wanted others to have justice that he never received in his misunderstood killing incidence. The foresters were being greedy and did not want to pay him money that he had fairly won. Therefore, they unjustly gave him the verdict of killing the “King’s deer, and, by the laws of our gracious lord and sovereign, King Harry, thine ears should be shaven to thy head” (Pyle 6). He was governed by a local forester and never was heard by an impartial representative of the law that could rule over whether his actions were justified in their circumstances. He was driven out of the society to live in the forest in fear of being caught and thrown into jail. Rebel was his only choice. He started to form allies, fellow outlaws, with him in the forest. The legend was born.
The legend of Robin Hood has lived on to this day. Its theories have been displayed in movies that have recently been released in this past decade. The Bourn series movies, Taken, and the Law Abiding Citizen are but a few examples of the leading character being viewed as justified in taking the law into their own hands. The Bourn series expresses the view that a person has the right to take the law into his own hands when he has been framed by the law for something that he did not do. The law was pursuing him as a killer even when he took no part in the act that he has been accused of doing. This secret division of the law sent assassins after him to eliminate the problem. Robin Hood was pursued as Bourn was by the law. They were both framed and viewed as enemies by the law.
Another example, Taken, was a movie where a former CIA preventer agent’s daughter was kidnapped and forced into human trafficking. The law was not able to react fast enough to save his daughter; therefore, he took the law into his own hands. He went after the people and went his own way by doing anything he needed to do to find his daughter. Robin Hood viewed the poor as his own children and wanted to help them live, thus he stole from the rich. They did want they needed to do for the people they love. One more example of the use of the Robin Hood legend, the movie Law Abiding Citizen tells about a father losing his family in front of his eyes. A the killer’s lawyer made a deal with the prosecution and the killer and rapist only spent four years in prison and were then freed. The father did not believe that he had received justice for what had happened to his family. As a result, he took the law in to his own hands, and he killed everyone that was in involved in his case. Robin Hood viewed the world in a similar manner, and if he could not fix the legal system, he did what he wanted to help to poor.
Nevertheless, if Robin Hood was still alive in today’s world, would he be viewed as a hero or villain? He is clearly a hero from the poor’s point of view. However, in the rich’s point of view, he was a villain in stealing their money that they felt they had a right to even if it came from others. Today’s social classes are much more balanced and there are laws that protect the common people from being cheated out of their rights and their wealth; therefore, it is not as easy to clearly call who are the oppressed poor from those in power and are the rich. A breakdown of Robin Hood’s character shows that he is willing to help anyone in need to obtain the fairness that all are entitled to receive. Hence, Robin Hood would be viewed as a hero.
Thus, Robin Hood is a man with historic, fixed values, and appears in various other forms in today’s society to demonstrate the same views he was valued for hundreds of years ago. He is a type of role model for everyone. His actions let the reader know everything they need to know about being fair and fighting for the rights of all. Robin Hood demonstrates the love people should have towards less fortunate people.
Works Cited
UXL Encyclopedia of World Mythology. Detroit: UXL/Gale, 2009. Print.
Hunsinger, Earl. "The History and Legend of Robin Hood.” Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2010.
Pyle, Howard. Some merry adventures of Robin Hood, of great renown in Nottinghamshire / written and illustrated by Howard Pyle. 1903 New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1903. Print.
"Robin Hood." International Superheroes. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2010.
Simeone, W. E. "Robin Hood Ballads in North America.” Midwest Folklore 7.4 (1957): 197-201. JSTOR. Web. 20 Apr. 2010.
Will, Lawrence. “Thieves like us.” Australian, The (2010): 14. Newspaper Source. EBSCO. Web. 26 April 2010.