SOURCE: “Non-Verbal Communication and the Overlooked Action in Pinter's The Caretaker,” in The Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol. 58, No. 1, February, 1972, pp. 41-7.

In the following essay, Murphy focuses on The Caretaker, explaining the importance of attending to action indicated by the stage directions as much as to the dialogue in Pinter's plays.

Few modern dramatists manage to employ dialogue and gesture without emphasizing one at the expense of the other; and even fewer critics seem able to appreciate non-verbal communication in the context of a basically verbal play. Non-verbal communication, in particular gesture, is of special importance in the plays of Harold Pinter. Emphasis on Pinter's dialogue—especially the mysteries, fragments of information, red herrings, and obvious contradictions—to the exclusion of the various gestures and seemingly inconsequential actions had led to misinterpretations of his plays, notably The Caretaker (1960). The richness of Pinter's dialogue makes it all too...