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 Gu

Gus: No, it was that girl made me start to think – [There is a loud clatter …..] (2605).

The upshot of this play is that pastimes, distractions, and the active intervention of others, as well as our own curiosity, deflect us from taking due cognizance of our situation, of our condition. We fritter away our time, and sap our vitality, by killing time. It is only a small step to eliminating others from the scene.

Gus is also disenchanted with his role in the killing of the “Blokes,” particularly since they killed a woman the last time. This has set Gus “thinking” (2605), and that is dangerous; for their method requires them to get the drop on the “Bloke,” and eliminate him, or her, without reflecting. They have only to react, and then get away clean, and travel on to their next job venue (2597). Gus can’t, however, get it out of his mind that “That girl” was different:

Some topics in this essay:
Gus Wilson, Pastimes Enforcement, Assassination Gus, Wilson Ben, Ben Pityingly, Wilson Gus, Finally Gus, Kaw I’ve, Gus Ben, Dumb Waiter”, “that girl”, wasn’t mess, loyalty wilson, we’ve gone,