AP Literature
Hamlet Final Assessment
THE FEVER CHART
Hamlet is a play chock full of ideas and thematic notions. What you will be responsible for
doing over the course of the next few days is to begin work on the construction of something called a
Fever Chart. It is essentially the graphic representation of your notes on an analytical question about
the play. For example, if one were to select Hamlet’s sanity or insanity in thought and action as a
focus of analysis, you would create a graph in which the Y axis represents the degrees of
sanity/insanity that they character might display and the X axis would be the thoughts or actions
that plot out that particular point in the play on the continuum from sane to insane behavior.
The fever chart is presented as a graph, with 30-40 citations from the text to support your
chosen aspect of the character. Are you limited to only speaking about sanity v. insanity? Nay! You
can consider all sorts of intriguing directions for your analysis. Hamlet’s capacity for love.
Gertrude’s self-awareness. The key is constructing an arguable thesis, and then being tenacious in
exploring the textual evidence.
To illustrate:
You can choose to do Hamlet alone, or you can have several lines for several different
characters. Try to invent a new or fresh approach to the assignment.
When completed you will be called upon to defend and present your chosen Fever Chart topic, and
then use it as the basis of an essay.
How will it be assessed?
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Originality of Format
Use of the Text: # of citations
Presentation: Art, Construction, Neatness
Clarity and Demonstration of Thesis (Your selected topic)
Student Examples:
Fever Chart on Hamlet’s capacity to love.
Name:
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Originality of Format ___/10
Use of the Text (# of citations/brief explanation) ___/15
Presentation: Art, Construction, Neatness ___/10
Clarity and Demonstration of Thesis (Your selected topic) ___/10
Total: ___/45
Notes: