Why does Flavia marry Rudolf?

Flavia marries King Rudolf because she feels that she has a duty and responsibility to her king and the people of Ruritania. Despite Rassendyll telling her that he will “always love only her” and begging her to leave for England with him, she declines, because she is too honorable to neglect her duty to Ruritania and the king. After King Rudolf gets drunk on coronation day, Rassendyll, his lookalike, takes up his role and is crowned king with the intention of relinquishing power to Rudolf upon waking up. However, that is not the case: Rudolf is seized by Black Michael, forcing Rassendyll to continue acting as the king until the Rudolf is rescued. It is during this period that he meets Flavia and they fall in love. Flavia is engaged to King Rudolf, but all along, she does not realize that Rassendyll is not King Rudolf, because their resemblance is so strong. Once Rudolf is rescued and she is told the truth, Flavia realizes that she still loves Rassendyll. However, she chooses not to leave with him to England and instead marries King Rudolf, as she feels obliged to fulfill her duty to her king and the people of Ruritania.

Flavia marries King Rudolf out of duty; she is, after all, betrothed to him. At one point, she thinks she's fallen in love with Rudolf, but it turns out to be his double, Rassendyll. Despite being his intended, Flavia has never liked Rudolf all that much. That's why she's so surprised to find just how much she enjoys Rudolf's—really Rassendyll's—company all of a sudden.
But her happiness isn't destined to last. When Rassendyll eventually rescues the king from the castle of Zenda, Flavia feels she has no choice but to go ahead with the wedding, even though she loves the English gentleman and not the Ruritanian monarch. Flavia selflessly puts the good of the kingdom ahead of her personal feelings, a decision for which she earns the undying admiration of Rassendyll himself.

What is a brief summary of War Horse? What are the main concerns in the book, and what features has the author used to express these?

In War Horse, Michael Morpurgo explores violence, cruelty, and courage in war through the eyes of a horse, Joey. He's a half-thoroughbred colt purchased by a drunk farmer. The farmer's son, Albert raises Joey and forms a strong bond with the young horse. Albert teaches Joey how to plow, even though the task is difficult for Joey as a half-thoroughbred. Albert's father sells Joey to the army as a war horse. From another horse, Topthorn, Joey learns how to charge into battle. Both horses are captured by the Germans and made to pull ambulances. A local girl named Emilie and her grandfather care for the horses and keep them when the German forces move away. Joey now helps Topthorn learn how to plow fields. Another group of German soldiers take the horses and use them to pull artillery. This work proves too much for Topthorn, who dies. Joey is frightened by a tank into the heart of the battle, where he becomes trapped in barbed wire. Soldiers from both sides stop fighting long enough to free the horse. Recovering from his ordeal, Joey is reunited with Albert, who has enlisted in the army. At the end of the war, Emilie's grandfather helps Albert by outbidding the butcher for Joey. Joey returns to the family farm with Albert. The story details the struggle to adapt and stretch beyond one's perceived limits. This is shown in Joey's adaptation from riding horse to plow horse to war horse. By telling the story from Joey's point of view, Morpurgo emphasizes the waste and trauma experienced on all sides during war.

How does Rousseau justify his arguments about equality?

Rousseau's arguments about equality are framed within his understanding of the Social Contract, the title of one of his best-known works and an idea of society organized around the concept of the "general will." Rousseau differs with Hobbes in his view of human nature, and sees primitive society, the "state of nature," as one where cooperation and harmony are prevalent.
This positive view of humanity challenges Hobbes' darker vision and becomes the foundation for Rousseau's ideas about equality and government. He suggests that inequality comes from existing social arrangements and hierarchy, and that an ideal, egalitarian society would be arranged around a social contract which emerges out of the "general will," in essence the good of the community and the welfare of the whole.
While some might suggest that Rousseau's "general will" runs contrary to individualism, challenging equality, this is no the case. For Rousseau, political power and the role of the sovereign is to secure the freedom and equality of a society's citizens, not limit them. In this respect his vision of government is one which only intervenes to create balance and harmony, not to directly rule. Because of a positive view of human nature, he suggests equality emerges out of the "general will" in a society stripped of previous inequalities.

How is connotation used in "The Lottery"?

Jackson uses words with positive connotations early in the story to help establish a setting that seems idyllic and blithe, slowly building in negatively-connoted words later on; the contrast between the beautiful and happy setting and the events that take place there create irony and interest in the story. Early on, she uses words like "sunny" and "fresh" to describe the summer day. The flowers are "blossoming profusely" and the grass is "richly green." Even the word "lottery" itself typically has a positive connotation. A lottery is something one wins, and there is an element of exclusivity and luckiness within the word's connotation as well.
The major irony of the story is that the idyllic setting hides the horrible tradition maintained by the people of the town. The connotation of the words early in the story as well as the connotation of the word "lottery" mislead the reader, leading us to expect happy summer days where someone wins something wonderful; instead, we get a bloodthirsty mob and a woman's violent death.

Jackson primarily uses a dry, neutral, journalistic style in this short story, telling the tale matter-of-factly. Nevertheless, we get hints that the lottery makes the villagers uneasy and uncomfortable through some of the connotative, or emotionally colored, words she chooses. For example, the black box that hold the lottery tickets had spent "another year underfoot in the post office." The word "underfoot" has the negative connotation of being a bother or encumbrance, something people trip over and resent. Jackson could have used a word like "stored" or "rested," which would have had a much less negative connotation.
We learn that at one time there had been ritual words used at the lottery, which are described as "a perfunctory, tuneless chant." "Perfunctory" and "tuneless" both have negative connotations. "Perfunctory" means going through the motions without caring, and "tuneless," of course, conjures an unpleasant sound. This ritual associated with the lottery was, we can assume, unwelcome.
Mr. Summers, who runs the lottery, wears a "clean white shirt and blue jeans." A clean white shirt carries a connotation of purity, which is at odds with the ritual, while "blue jeans" are a down-to-earth, ordinary piece of clothing.
Jackson describes Mr. Summers and Mr. Adams as "grinn[ing] at one another humorlessly and nervously." Here, the word "grinned" takes on a ghoulish connotation. Normally, smiling or grinning is a pleasant facial expression, but in this context it seems more like the smile we associated with a skull.
One of the most powerful connotations come when Little Dave Hutchinson walks "willingly . . . up to the box." The word "willingly" connotes innocence: Dave comes willingly to draw a piece of paper because he is so young he has no idea it could mean he will soon be stoned.

Connotation is the meaning associated with a word or phrase that goes beyond the literal or denotative meaning. Shirley Jackson uses connotation in several ways in her classic short story.
One of these is ironic. Technically, a lottery is just a random drawing. It could be good or bad. Most often, though, a lottery is held for some kind of prize, and so it carries a positive meaning. In this case, since the "winner" gets stoned, the meaning is very negative.
A second example of connotation is also ironic. Mr. Summers, who runs the lottery, has a name associated with warmth and pleasure. Likewise, the June setting is associated with warmth and pleasure. The lottery, of course, is neither warm or pleasant.
A major non-ironic example of connotation is the box used for the lottery. The box is black, a color associated with death and mourning. This foreshadows the deaths the lottery will bring, and is associated with the black dot on the paper Mrs. Hutchinson opens.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/connotation

With what topic is the speaker concerned in this sonnet?

"Bright Star" is widely considered to be the last poem John Keats wrote before he died at the age of twenty-five. Scholars believe the "bright star" addressed in the poem to be a representation of Keats's great love, Fanny Brawne. 
The poem is a love poem and describes the speaker's wish to be as steadfast and as constant as a star in the life of his love. That being the case, there are really two main topics with which Keats is concerned: in literal terms, the poem is entirely addressed to a bright star, possibly Polaris, and its "splendour hung aloft the night," "still steadfast, still unchangeable." On a deeper level, however, the sonnet addresses the topic of love: the speaker yearns to stay "pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast/To feel forever its soft fall and swell." The bittersweet final lines of the sonnet—"Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath/And so live ever—or else swoon to death"—give an implication of why the speaker so yearns to possess the steadfast and permanent qualities of the star he so admires. The speaker would love to stay forever pressed against his love, but, the wistful tone implies, he may be prevented from doing so by a death that may come too soon.
The star described in the sonnet is portrayed as a "watching" figure, always alert, always at its "priestlike task" of keeping an eye fixed upon its charge, the Earth. We may infer from the poet's wistful tone that he is particularly loath to depart his position upon his love's "ripening breast" because he feels he is responsible for keeping watch over her and does not want to be denied the opportunity to do this forever.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44468/bright-star-would-i-were-stedfast-as-thou-art

What was the overall impact the Second Industrial Revolution had on America?

The Second Industrial Revolution impacted the United States in many ways. When the Second Industrial Revolution began, more people began to work in factories. The working conditions in these factories were very poor. Workers were often injured on the job. They worked long hours for low pay. Children often worked in the factories. Eventually, laws were passed to deal with these conditions.
American industrial production increased. New and cheaper methods for making steel were used. This allowed for significant advances in transportation. Steam engines were used to power ships and trains. More miles of train tracks increased the areas to which railroads could travel. Products and people could be transported faster. New roads and canals also improved the transportation system. American products could now also be shipped around the world, opening new markets to American businesses.
Communications also improved. With the invention of the telegraph and later the telephone, it became easier and quicker to communicate. This allowed businesses to receive and process orders more quickly, allowing for these businesses to expand their operations.
The Second Industrial Revolution allowed the American economy to grow and to prosper. While there were some issues connected with the Second Industrial Revolution, the United States benefitted from it in many ways.
http://ushistoryscene.com/article/second-industrial-revolution/

How can I compare the theme of loss in "Out Out" by Robert Frost and "Disabled" by Wilfred Owen?

Both Wilfred Owen's "Disabled" and Robert Frost's "Out, Out--" are poems about the loss of life as it has been. While the boy in Frost's poem completely loses his life, Owen's young man loses his former way of life.
1. Loss of physical ability or death 
When the chainsaw slips in the boy's hand, Frost writes that the saw "seemed to leap" and nearly sever his hand: "He must have given the hand." There is the sense of surrender to the cruelty of chance in the boy's actions, although he seems to hope his hand can be saved when he "saw all." He begs, "Don't let him cut my hand off--" because he fears if he loses his hand, then he can no longer do a man's work as he is accustomed to doing. Of course, the tragic result of this accident is unknown to the boy, whose fate is worse than he fears.This loss of physical ability with the amputation of his legs is also crucial to the soldier in Owens's poem "Disabled." Confined to a wheelchair, the young man who was once a soldier perceives himself as only half a man. With the loss of his legs, he is dependent upon others and "must take whatever pity they may dole." Moreover, he notices how women do not look at him, but "[P]assed from him to the strong men that were whole."
Further, the ex-soldier knows that he will go to a veterans' hospital and just "take whatever pity" is given to him. Much like the boy's fears of losing his hand, a condition which would handicap him, the veteran has fears of his loss of independence. Now he must worry, "Why don't they come/And put him into bed?" because he is no longer independent as he once was "in the old times before he threw away his knees."
2. Loss of family/social contact
When he realizes that his hand is destroyed, the boy of Frost's poem perceives that "all [was] spoiled." At this point the boy only believes that he will no longer be able to use his hand, and, therefore, he will not be able to hold his own in the world of woodsmen, nor will he be able to cut wood for his family. Instead, the others, who "were not the one dead," "turned to their affairs" and go about their work after the boy dies just as they would if he were to live.
In "Disabled," the now handicapped soldier hears the voices of boys that "rang saddening like a hymn," or a song for the dead. He can no longer participate in much of life; instead, he can only listen to the "voices of play and pleasure" in which he once participated.
3. Loss of hope for the future
In the poem "Out, Out--" Frost writes that the boy "saw all spoiled." The boy realizes that even if his hand is not amputated, he will no longer be able to hold the chainsaw or do the other tasks of a man. In his environment of the North Woods, the boy will become alienated from others without being able to participate, and he will have little future because the men all need to work.
Likewise, the veteran who "sat in a wheeled chair waiting for dark and shivered in his ghastly suit of grey" is ruined, too, and is cast aside and "will spend a few sick years in Institutes."
4. Loss of innocence through harsh experience
Both the boy of Frost's poem and the amputee veteran of Owens's poem have lost their innocence as well as their optimistic perspectives on life. Certainly, each has felt that there was much life ahead of him; however, they are both tragically made aware that a person holds onto life with but a gossamer thread.
The boy of Frost's poem has cherished the free time "a boy counts so much when saved from work"; however, once he is severely injured, the boy can no longer play at any game. Similarly, the disabled soldier realizes that he will have no more youth--"Now he is old; his back will never brace"--because he has been aged by becoming disabled and crippled as an old man would be. 
5. Loss of relationship with the natural world
Both the boy and the veteran have lost their relationships with the natural world; no longer can the boy work as a man or play outdoors. Certainly, the young soldier whose legs are gone cannot march or hike or engage in many activities outdoors or even in society. He is only to be pitied because

...half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race,And leap or purple spurted from his thigh...

6. Loss of physical and psychological freedom
Threatened with the loss of his hand, a body part that is so essential, the boy panics, crying out to his sister, "Don't let him, sister!" as he begs her to prevent the doctor from amputating his hand. Surely the boy considers how limited he would be in all aspects of his life without one hand.
Faced with the loss of his legs, the young soldier of Owens's poem recalls how the crowds reacted differently toward him when he returned, and only "a solemn man" thanked him for his sacrifice for him and others in America. "Now he will spend a few sick years in Institutes," and he believes his life will be so much less than it could have been; he will always feel isolated and unfulfilled.
7. The structure of the two poems
There is a singleness to the poem "Out, Out--" because of its one-stanza construction. This single stanza reflects the swiftness of the boy's accident and fate as well as the isolation of the unfortunate incident. Without a rhyme scheme, the verse also moves more quickly than if it were divided into stanzas and had rhyming end words that would separate ideas.
On the other hand, Owens's "Disabled" is divided into six stanzas with alternating lines that rhyme with each other, although this pattern is sometimes broken. The stanzas are not uniform in the number of lines that each has, either. So, the speed is broken as in stanza 5, a short, slow stanza to give the reader time to ponder the tragic effects of the soldier's return as an incomplete man.