In this passage, the Sheriff of Nottingham punishes three brothers for the crime of hunting for food in the king’s forest.
"So," quoth [the Sheriff of Nottingham], in a great, loud, angry voice, "ye have been poaching upon the King's deer, have you? Now I will make short work of you this day, for I will hang up all three of you as a farmer would hang up three crows to scare others of the kind from the field. Our fair county of Nottingham hath been too long a breeding place for such naughty knaves as ye are. I have put up with these things for many years, but now I will stamp them out once for all, and with you I will begin.”
–The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood,
Howard Pyle
How is the Sheriff of Nottingham an example of an archetype?
He is a villain because acts with cruelty.
He is a hero because he is victorious.
He is a sage because he instructs the young.
He is a rebel because he acts according to his own moral code.
