Elimination in Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter

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Elimination in Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter*

Pinter’s short play, “The Dumb Waiter” (1960), is about the vocational crisis of two English hit-men, or professional assassins, whose plight is precipitated by the identity crisis of the junior partner, Gus. Ben’s whole concern in the play is to question Gus (2603), whose loyalty to Wilson, the apparent head of their agency, is on the wane. Conversely, Gus’s behavior is increasingly to question the institutional loyalty of Wilson toward him (and Ben), and to probe their collective raison d’etre (reason for being) (2603). After a few incidents throughout their Friday evening, it becomes apparent that Gus’s growing disease can no longer be tolerated, and Wilson identifies to Ben the “next bloke” for whom the team has been waiting – and it is none other than Gus! (2614-2615). Whether Ben can kill his partner or not, in the usual way, is moot, as the curtain descends on both astonished men, who are frozen in a concluding tableau (2616). But the theme is clearly that “the worker is soon eliminated whose interest disputes the management of the system” (Dr. Knighton).

This identifies the resolution term for the play, which is elimination. Their vocation requires Gus and Ben to eliminate each “bloke” at the rate of one a week, or 48 a year (They have one month’s vocation time annually). The irregular flushing action, or elimination, of the offstage toilet or lavatory foreshadows or presages the increasingly dysfunctional relationship of this pair. Finally, Gus himself is targeted for elimination as the team is downsized by half. Gus’s discontent is focused by three major concerns: accommodations and facilities; the process of victimizing the “blokes”; and the conflict he’s having with Ben, his partner. They are focused by his changing attitudes, to Wilson, the head of the organization; to “That girl,” (2605), their most recent victim; and, of course, to ...