Date

5-20-2026

Degree

Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (MFA)

Chair

Durrell Nelson

Keywords

screenwriting, movies, dialogue, character, screenplay

Disciplines

Creative Writing

Abstract

The purpose of this document is to highlight the importance of dialogue in a screenplay, discuss specific examples of dialogue from well-known films, and analyze how words affect the characterization of a film’s protagonist. First, the document explains the importance of having strong characters in a story for it to be compelling enough for audiences to engage with it. Then, the question of whether character or plot is more important in a narrative is discussed. Finally, the document introduces the concept of dialogue in a screenplay, forming the argument that dialogue is just as important as plot structure. For this argument, dialogue will be broken into two separate categories: diegetic (spoken) and non-diegetic (internal) dialogue. Each section is then dissected in detail, supported with sections of an accompanying film’s screenplay, and finally analyzed on a scholarly level to interpret their importance to impacting the plot.

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