A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE CONCEPT OF OBEDIENCE IN HAROLD PINTER'S THE DUMB WAITER
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v2.i2.2021.3543Keywords:
Obedience, Resistence, Power DynamicsAbstract [English]
British playwright Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter was first performed in 1960. The play revolved around the two hitmen, Ben and Gus, who were waiting for the entirety of the play in a windowless, dreary basement room to receive an order from the higher authority for their next target. Both the hitmen had been receiving coded incomprehensible messages and complex food orders through a dumb waiter which might be from their higher-ups. The coded messages never revealed the exact nature of the requirement from the assasins as well as the identity of that night’s target. Ben was experienced, sedate, and professional, while Gus was inquisitive about their tasks. Gus complained about the little space he got from his superiors. He hinted at the disrespect he felt due to the callous dealings of his higher-ups. In fact, he was not ready to accept the class hierarchy. He was also dissatisfied with how their employers considered them meaningless. On the other hand, Ben, the senior hitman, was compliant with his employers and maintained silence regarding the unpleasant nature of his work. His views contradicted Gus, and he advised his junior to accept the class hierarchy. Gus showed his resistance against the authority while Ben remained obedient to his superior authority. The binary of obedience and resistance, as depicted through the characters of Ben and Gus, is a central theme of The Dumb Waiter. This study attempts to examine the theme of obedience in The Dumb Waiter.
References
Allen, John. (1962). Masters of British Drama. London: Dennis Dobson.
Bentley, Eric. (1969). The Theory of the Modern Stage. Penguin Books Ltd.
Burkman, Katherine H. (1971). The Dramatic World of Harold Pinter : Its Basis in Ritual. Columbus : Ohio State University Press.
Dukore, Bernard F. (1982). Harold Pinter. London: Macmillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15627-6
Esslin, Martin. (1983). The Theatre of the Absurd. (3rd Ed.) . Penguin Books. Doubleday & Co. Inc.
Hayman, Ronald. (1970). Harold Pinter. London : Heinemann.
Pintar, Harold. (1994) “The Dumb Waiter.” The Caretaker and the Dumb Waiter. Grove Press.
Sykes, Arlene. (1970). Harold Pinter. St. Lucia: Queensland University Press.
Thompson, David T. (1985). Pinter :The Players’ Playwright. London : Macmillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07277-4
The Dumb Waiter. (2024,December 25). In Wikipedia.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ The_Dumb_Waiter
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Dr. Pranjyoti Deka
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
With the licence CC-BY, authors retain the copyright, allowing anyone to download, reuse, re-print, modify, distribute, and/or copy their contribution. The work must be properly attributed to its author.
It is not necessary to ask for further permission from the author or journal board.
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
