Harold Pinter is famous for his silences. In The Dumb Waiter, there is a fair amount of action on stage before a word is spoken. Even when the dialogue begins, Ben and Gus are merely discussing a story in the newspaper, and they continue to talk about news items throughout the play. Even when not focused on the newspaper, their conversation is trivial and often seems little more than a way of passing the time.

Ben and Gus are hired killers. Their job is a sensational and dangerous one which raises vital questions of life, death, and morality. Though the play ends with an assassination, they spend most of their time before this point studiously avoiding such weighty topics. When they finally come to discuss the details of the murder they are about to commit, their staccato stichomythia and constant repetition divulge their nervousness to the audience. As is generally the case in Pinter, the interior life of the characters is approached obliquely. They communicate their feelings to the audience by the way they fail to communicate with each other. The poverty within them remains unexpressed but is revealed by the vacuity of everything they do express.