Aspects of the relationship between the individual and society are illustrated in various readings, presenting characters who themselves have a relationship with their society and who influence that society and are influenced by it in turn.

             The main character in Henry V by William Shakespeare is a king and so might be seen to represent society, but he is also an individual and is restricted in some degree in what he can do because he represents the people and long-standing traditions which govern his actions. In Henry V, Shakespeare depicts a king he views as efficient and practical, though this is not his highest ideal of what a ruler should be. In effect, he sees Henry V as a serviceable leader who could not be said to have been a great ruler. The play is structured specifically to illuminate aspects of Henry V's character, and each scene in the play leads the viewer to take another look at that character.

             Henry is presented as the ideal of England--not Shakespeare's ideal but England's notion of a hero-king. He is more than a simple human being in this regard. The scenes in the play, as noted, illustrate different aspects of Henry's character--one addresses his religious nature, another his sense of justice, another his mercy, another his nobility as ruler. The one dilemma he faces from the beginning involves the issue of his right to the throne, something that concerns him but that does not alter his ability to rule. There is a belief that his claim on the throne was indeed faulty, and for Henry it is the support of the religious community in the form of the Archbishop that gives him a clear conscience. This links his individual fortune to the approval of society.

             Critics and reviewers saw Alan Sillitoe as a proletarian writer when he appeared with Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and it was for this reason that he was placed with the other novelists who at the time were being labeled the Angry Young Men.