Gus and Ben, the characters in this play, are working together as killers. They come from time to time, as they have been ordered, to an already prepared room, wait for their victim to enter, finish their job and leave to do the same thing in another room. Paradoxically enough, one of these Killers, Gus, will be a victim towards the end of play; Ben will have to follow the instructions in order to do away with him. The dramatist has not concentrated a lot on the victims of these Killers as he puts all his emphasis on the idea that Gus and Ben are turned to be a killer and a victim. The whole atmosphere and the conversation between them stress this idea. So are the silences Pinter has indicated from the beginning to the end of the play. Those brief moments expose Gus as a victim more than anything else for silence appears as Pinter’s effective technique to foreshadow a long silence, death, in the end. The play opens with silent characters, Gus and Ben, in a “silent” atmosphere. They produce some noise while moving here and there, while walking to the door, shaking foot and rattling the paper, but they never utter a word. Silence is already implied in a noise that is devoid of speech. Gus restlessly moves here and there and vainly tries to start a conversation with Ben. Ben, however, carelessly reads a paper and fixedly watches his victim. Their eyes meet twice and at that moment they stop moving, they stop producing noise.
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