Why does Shakespeare introduce some of the main characters as being in a sad mood? What effect does this have on the audience?

In Act one, Scene 1, Antonio is introduced as a character who is suffering from severe depression. Antonio laments about his mood and mentions that he cannot sleep or think clearly. Antonio tells his two friends, Salerio and Solanio, that he cannot figure out the cause of his bad mood. When the audience first meets Portia in the second scene of the play, she laments to Nerissa about her recent suitors. Portia tells Nerissa that she is tired of living and feels helpless in her journey to find love. Portia is portrayed as a hopeless romantic who is also struggling with depression. Shakespeare chose to introduce these two main characters who are in depressed moods to create sympathy for them. The audience has empathy for Antonio and Portia and immediately feels sorry for them. The two characters moods change as the play progresses, and the audience is relieved when Portia finds love and Antonio's fortune is saved. By portraying the two main characters as helpless at the beginning of the play, Shakespeare manipulates the audience into feelings sorry for them, then rewards the audience by illustrating how Portia and Antonio both end up happy at the end of the play.

Are there any advantages of social stratification?

Whether or not there are any advantages to social stratification really depends on who you are and where you fall in that system. By its very nature, social stratification limits access to power, prestige, and privilege by systemically oppressing and exploiting particular groups of people. Though complex societies rely on the differentiation of labor, there does not necessarily need to be a differential distribution of wealth based on irrelevant characteristics like race, gender, ethnicity, bodily ability, religion, health status, or socioeconomic background. 

I would say that there are advantages to social stratification for those who fall into the preferential categories and higher ranks of stratification. Though there may exist advantages in access to power, prestige, and privilege, they are not justified in a system of social stratification. Where there are systemic advantages, there are also disadvantages. For example, in the United States, there persists a racial and ethnically based system of social stratification which gives preferential access to health, wealth, and education to white people, while placing People of Color in a cycle of poverty. For every one white person who does well in the United States, there is a handful of People of Color who have been denied the opportunity and resources for achievement.

What are some advantages of culturally diverse society?

A society that exhibits cultural diversity has advantages that are quantitative as well as qualitative. 

The quantitative advantage can been seen when studying cultures that have tried to stay isolated. In the United States, one of the most striking examples of the health risks of cultural isolation can be found in Amish communities. Because the Amish strive to keep their culture uniform and avoid cultural diversity, "founder effect" increases the chances of genetic abnormalities in Amish communities. The lack of cultural diversity can be literally a matter of life and death. The goal of Amish cultural isolation is to keep the culture strong by not diluting it, but the results of such isolation produce the opposite effect within the isolated community. Furthermore, since 10-20% of each generation of Amish leave their isolated communities, these genetic mutations and abnormalities do not solely affect the isolated culture. An advantage of cultural diversity can be quantitatively shown through the study of its converse, cultural isolation.

By definition, qualitative advantages are more difficult to prove, but one of the greatest advantages of cultural diversity can be found in the understanding that a greater pool of opinions, experiences, and cultures will produce solutions, innovations, and outcomes that benefit the greatest number of people. Being able to draw on multiple sources of art, government, craftsmanship, folklore, and history can provide new avenues of conflict mediation—a definite positive in a global society. Cultural diversity helps people focus on common needs and goals while acknowledging there could be multiple paths to the same end result. Cultural diversity can—interestingly enough—help people focus on what they have in common even while noting differences. 

Both quantitatively and qualitatively, it is not an exaggeration to say the advantages of cultural diversity can affect the population in a positive way.

In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, what comments does Stevenson make about the social world of the novel?

In creating Dr. Henry Jekyll, a relatively ethical character who feels such intense societal pressure to be perfect, Stevenson seems to comment on, indeed criticize, the society that would drive a man to such lengths in order to rid himself of what seems to be a natural part of human nature.  Jekyll felt the need to "conceal his pleasures," as he writes in his final letter, and he felt a "morbid sense of shame" concerning them.  He "stood already committed to a profound duplicity of life," and the need to hide any moral imperfection (as determined by his society) compelled him to try to eliminate those imperfections altogether. 

However, he reasoned, and it seems that Stevenson would expect us to agree, that "man is not truly one, but truly two," and so Jekyll's attempt to rid himself of his socially unacceptable desires amounts to the attempt to eliminate a fundamental part of himself as a human being.  Further, his inability to control this side of himself, once he has unleashed it, indicates that his experiment should not have been attempted, that, in trying to eliminate his immorality utterly, he actually allowed it to become stronger.  Therefore, society's attempt to regulate morality to such a great degree, such that a well-respected doctor fears for his reputation over a few minor desires, must be considered not only unrealistic but also dangerous.  The more people feel repressed, the more urgent the desire to break through the boundaries imposed.

What character experienced change during The Last Lecture?

Jai experiences change in The Last Lecture.

The question is a difficult one to answer because there is little room for change in the narrative.  Everyone concerned knows that "the elephant in the room" is Randy's inevitable death.  This end point is the beginning, and as a result, no one really changes as a result of the lecture. For example, Randy started off as a "Tigger" and still is at lecture's end.  

However, one change we can see is in Jai.  At the start of the narrative, she is not comfortable with Randy delivering the lecture.  Jai was "leery of this whole last-lecture idea" because of how much time it will consume.  She was not comfortable with it because it was going to take something that neither she or her husband could afford to surrender:

We had just moved from Pittsburgh to Southeastern Virginia so that after my death, Jai and the kids could be near her family. Jai felt that I ought to be spending my precious time with our kids, or unpacking our new house, rather than devoting my hours to writing the lecture and then traveling back to Pittsburgh to deliver it.

'Call me selfish,' Jai told me. 'But I want all of you. Any time you’ll spend working on this lecture is lost time, because it’s time away from the kids and from me.'

Eventually, Jai gives into Randy's demand.  Her initial apprehension is changed when she attends the lecture. She sits in the front row and watches her husband, "the showman," put on his last show for the public.  Since Randy delivered the lecture on her birthday, he breaks from his remarks in order to present a cake and has the entire audience sing "Happy Birthday:" "As we all sang, I finally allowed myself to look at Jai. She sat in her front-row seat, wiping away tears with this surprised smile on her face, looking so lovely—bashful and beautiful, pleased and overwhelmed…."  The "surprised smile on her face" is a change from the frustration Jai displayed at the start of the narrative.

Why is Ulrich not able to shoot his enemy when he first encounters him in "The Interlopers" by Saki?

Ulrich von Gradwitz is unable to shoot his enemy when he suddenly encounters him because of the "code of a restraining civilization." This code prohibits shooting a neighbor in cold blood without warning or words exchanged unless the offense is one against a man's honor or his family.

The feud that exists between Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym is simply over a particular strip of very steep woodland on the edge of the Gradwitz forest lands. It is jealously guarded by von Gradwitz because of the fact that it was wrested from the Znaeyms in a famous lawsuit. However, although the Znaeyms lost in the courts, they continue to come on the land and poach, and the feud is continued by the impassioned younger male members of the families. 

One night, as the deer who normally are bedded down are running during a storm wind, von Gradwitz calls upon his foresters to go out and search for any sight or sound of "the marauders." It is on this "wild night," then, that von Gradwitz suddenly is confronted by his mortal enemy, Georg Znaeym. But, in that short moment of civilized conditioning in which they cannot shoot each other, the mighty beech tree around which they are face-to-face is struck by the violence of nature. Suddenly, a mass of branches crashes down upon the two men. Now, helplessly pinioned beneath the broken branches and wounded, the two enemies clearly cannot end their feud as intended.

Based on this video on Travelocity, think about what consumers want from online travel services providers. What are five criteria that you think...

Travelocity's focus group information architecture usability analysis showed that what its customers want is an uncomplicated, unconfusing, simplified experience shopping for and purchasing travel packages. As a result, Travelocity modified their online purchasing program to be password-free for those who forget their passwords.

Travelocity's partnership with AARP opened a door for offline direct mail, a marketing avenue Travelocity wouldn't have engaged otherwise because their customers want online experiences, while AARP's want offline experiences. 

Travelocity developed a control group of customers that received no emails so other groups could be tested with variable kinds of emails. They found, because of the effectiveness of having a control group, that the email marketing campaigns producing the most incremental lift were the special-interest, targeted emails. Customers responded when emails were targeted to their reported areas of interest.

Travelocity found success combining marketing approaches with the customer's entertainment media mix. The Travelocity Gnome is a representation of this concept. The Gnome, like the Geico Gecko, personalizes Travelocity while combining a mood of entertainment with marketing exposure.

Travelocity's extremely successful innovation of a publicized Customer Bill of Rights promises that Travelocity stands behind every customer and guarantees every purchase down to the last detail. The Gnome heralds the Bill of Rights and makes it familiar to customers. 

The experiences of Travelocity suggest five criteria that are key to satisfying customers:

1. Remove barriers to success by providing streamlined alternative means of action.

2. Find the avenue of approach that is most functional for the customer segment.

3. Use research and self-reporting surveys to identify true areas of interest so as to bypass a carpeting approach in marketing.

4. Gear marketing to how the customer actually experiences exposure, such as through their media mix.

5. Make the brand personal and approachable, supported by an unflinching promise of excellence and an unwavering guarantee that their experience will be correct in every detail.