The Dumb Waiter

The Dumb Waiter Questions and Answers

Compare and contrast Gus and Ben in The Dumb Waiter. Bring in examples to illustrate the answer.

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What are the absurdist elements in The Dumb Waiter? How do the characters, narrative, dialogue, action, costumes, lights, and sound belong to the theatre of the absurd?

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Harold Pinter once said that “communication is too alarming. To enter into someone else’s life is too frightening. To disclose to others the poverty within us is too fearsome a possibility.” Evaluate this comment with close reference to Pinter’s play The Dumb Waiter.

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How do the dialogues and interactions between Ben and Gus, their pauses, silences, and their actions and attitudes as individuals contribute to the characterization of The Dumb Waiter as both an absurdist play and a comedy of menace?

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What kind of a place are Ben and Gus in at the beginning, and what feeling does the setting create for the audience? What can we learn from the opening?

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What differences and similarities are there in Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter and Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey?

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