Sigmund Freud s joke-theory provides a useful key to Harold Pinters early plays, especially The Dumb Waiter .

This paper will explore the comic and menacing factors in "the Dumb Waiter" through the analysis of the structure, setting and language.

As far as the main characters, the theme and the dialogues are concerned, the play is strikingly similar to Beckett's play Waiting for Godot.