] ] I know that the ghost already told the story, so guilt is easier to see for the audience, for Hamlet, and for Horatio--but why are so many people blind to any hint of it?

] The only reason I have ever been able to come up with is that they plain and simple like Claudius.

I love The Mousetrap. This is another example of how this play is a morass of questions (as you pointed out earlier Laraine) some answered and some not. As an audience member, it is apparant that Claudius is guilty. To Hamlet, all he has is the proof of the ghost - enough for him. But, you will notice that Claudius, never actually admits to Hamlet, Hamlet kills him in a passionate rage before he can do so. The Mousetrap isn't neccessarily proof of Claudius' guilt tot he court or even Hamlet. In it, the nephew (Lucianus) of the king poisons the king (Ganzago), not the brother of the king. It is a very vague disguise, but clouds the actual story enough to make it another "question". The rest of the court could just think that Claudius is upset because he has just seen a play about a man murdering his uncle, the king. Sound familiar? Since the court would know of the problems Hamlet is having dealing with his uncles new stature, this is not out of the realm of possibility.