Different Types of Communication in Pinter's Dumb Waiter
Abstract
This paper discusses the ways of communication of two characters Ben and Gus in Harold Pinter’s play, dumb waiter. Ben and Gus are two assassins awaiting the arrival of their next victim in a dank basement. The pair inhabits a pantomimic parody of world where nothing is ever accomplished through their dialogue. As a result they talk, but they don’t communicate. This paper examines four kinds of their communication and the violence and menace underneath it. It also explores the concept of power regarding their communication and the notion of silence that permeates the play.
Keywords: silence, communication, power, menace, social class
1- Introduction
Harold Pinter, English playwright, achieved international renown as one of the most complex and challenging post-World War II dramatists. His plays are noted for their use of understatement, small talk, reticence and even silence to convey the substance of a character's thought, which often lies several layers beneath, and contradicts, his speech. In 2005 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The son of a Jewish tailor, Pinter grew up in London's East End in a working-class area. He studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1948 but left after two terms to join a repertory company as a professional actor. Pinter toured Ireland and England with various acting companies, appearing under the name David Baron in provincial repertory theatres until 1959. After 1956 he began to write for the stage. The Room (first produced 1957) and The Dumb Waiter (first produced 1959), his first two plays, are one-act dramas that established the mood of comic menace that was to figure largely in his later works
After Pinter's radio play A Slight Ache (first produced 1959) was adapted for the stage (1961), his reputation was secured by his second full-length play, The Caretaker (first produced 1960; filmed 1963), which established him as more than just another
This paper discusses the ways of communication of two characters Ben and Gus in Harold Pinter’s play, dumb waiter. Ben and Gus are two assassins awaiting the arrival of their next victim in a dank basement. The pair inhabits a pantomimic parody of world where nothing is ever accomplished through their dialogue. As a result they talk, but they don’t communicate. This paper examines four kinds of their communication and the violence and menace underneath it. It also explores the concept of power regarding their communication and the notion of silence that permeates the play.
Keywords: silence, communication, power, menace, social class
1- Introduction
Harold Pinter, English playwright, achieved international renown as one of the most complex and challenging post-World War II dramatists. His plays are noted for their use of understatement, small talk, reticence and even silence to convey the substance of a character's thought, which often lies several layers beneath, and contradicts, his speech. In 2005 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The son of a Jewish tailor, Pinter grew up in London's East End in a working-class area. He studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1948 but left after two terms to join a repertory company as a professional actor. Pinter toured Ireland and England with various acting companies, appearing under the name David Baron in provincial repertory theatres until 1959. After 1956 he began to write for the stage. The Room (first produced 1957) and The Dumb Waiter (first produced 1959), his first two plays, are one-act dramas that established the mood of comic menace that was to figure largely in his later works
After Pinter's radio play A Slight Ache (first produced 1959) was adapted for the stage (1961), his reputation was secured by his second full-length play, The Caretaker (first produced 1960; filmed 1963), which established him as more than just another