In court, William Shakespeare's Hamlet will be used as a transcript to determine the fate of Prince Hamlet as he is responsible for the death of Polonius. With the mask of madness, Hamlet is aware of his actions as he murders Polonius through his malicious intent towards King Claudius. Furthermore, Hamlet being in a state of intense emotion during his confrontation with Queen Gertrude, he intentionally murders Polonius upon proper provocation which results in voluntary manslaughter. However, in pursuing King Claudius, Hamlet endangers himself and those close to him as he relentlessly involves others in his dangerous pursuit. From a legal point of view, Hamlet is declared sane when he murders Polonius and will be found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. With this belief, Hamlet will serve a prison sentence because he poses a threat to himself and those close to him due to his malicious intent and actions to assassinate King Claudius. In order to determine Hamlet's sanity, there must be a connection between Hamlet's mind. actions and elements of the M'Naughten test. Under these circumstances, Hamlet's results declare him sane because he does not meet the requirements of the M'Naughten test. According to Samaha, the M'Naughten test defines insanity as a mental illness that affects one's ability to reason and that impairs the accused's ability to know both the nature and quality of his or her actions and the difference between right and morally evil (277). However, mental illness does not affect Hamlet's reasoning because it is due to the circumstances in which he found himself. These circumstances initially include the death of King Hamlet and the marriage between King Claudius and Queen Gertrude, but later contain the deaths of other people. .... middle of paper ......rrod. Emotions and guilt: how the law is at odds with psychology, jurors and itself. Washington: American Psychological Association, 2006. Print. Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth and Kessler, David A. On grief and grieving: finding the meaning of grief through the five stages. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print.Posner, Richard A. Law and Literature. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009. Print. Prosser, Eleanor. Hamlet and Vengeance. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1967. Print. Samaha, Joel. Criminal law. California: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2002. Print.Scofield, Martin. Hamlet's Ghosts: the play and modern writers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980. Print. Trial of Hamlet. Boston University, Huntington Theater Company, Boston Bar Association. 1996. VideoWard, Ian. Shakespeare and the Legal Imagination. London: Butterworths, 1999. Print.