Whenever Gus tries to bring up something emotional, Ben refuses to speak with him.
This disconnection is the essence of their relationship.
They do not speak with, but to each other. They are like the dumb waiter-mute carriers of Information, not shares of it.
Locked in an airless and windowless basenment room, two hit men await orders from Wilson, their all knowing but never present boss. Gus, haunted by the memory of the last job, knows that something is wrong when their normally faultless routine is interrupted by some mysterious happenings.
The basement room suggests human existence lived mostly without understanding but under pressure, especially when the orders come down from above.
Pinter's i anguage, usually i ower - class vernacular (the l anguage or dialect spoken by the ordinary people of a country), has been bescri bed as poetic
His compressed, rhythmic linesrely heavily on subtext and hint at darker meanings.
Pinter has spoken much on the subject, and has categorized speech as that which at tempt to cover the nakedness of silence.