Fever Chart Assignment

Hamlet: The Fever Chart

The purpose of the fever chart assignment is to allow you to do a close reading of the text, which will lead to an essay that supplies evidence for the idea you are developing. The basic idea of the fever chart is that you are tracking Hamlet’s psychological state through the course of the play, using your own created (sanity-insanity) scale as the “Y-AXIS” and using direct quotes from the play as the “X-AXIS.” A careful look at the fever chart will allow you to draw conclusions.

You can choose to do Hamlet alone or you can have several lines for several different characters. Some traditional questions/issues have been Hamlet’s outer v. his inner life, Polonius’s observation that “Though this be madness, yet there is method in it,” and the theme of appearance versus reality. You do not have to focus on Hamlet, however, but might want to consider the characters of Claudius, Ophelia, or Gertrude and their respective psychological and emotional plights. If you are brave, you might also consider a topic/chart that combines Hamlet and Moby-Dick.

Sample Fever Chart Scoring Rubric:

Originality of Format (20 pts.)
Use of the Text: # of citations (40 pts.)
Presentation: Art, Construction, Neatness (20 pts.)
Clarity and Demonstration of Thesis (20 pts.)

Total _________

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