Imagine reading a major piece of literature that includes a wide range of archetypes. These archetypes in this piece of literature largely fabricate the characters of the plot and reveal an incredible story of love and tragedy that appeals to twentieth-century Americans. This extraordinary piece of literature, known as Romeo and Juliet, was written by the great mind of Shakespeare. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses numerous conventional archetypes such as star-crossed lovers, tragic hero, and mentor to create archetypal characters, thus making Romeo and Juliet relevant to twenty-first century American readers. Shakespeare uses the “Star-crossed lovers” archetype to develop the main protagonists, Romeo and Juliet, consequently making them relevant to modern society. This archetype is used to transform Romeo and Juliet into tragic lovers. Romeo and Juliet fall into this archetype, as they are destined to fall in love but also to experience tragedy. At the beginning of the play, Romeo's importance as an ill-fated lover is emphasized in act one, scene five; “Has my heart loved until now? sight! / For I had never seen true beauty until this night”(). Romeo sees Juliet for the first time in this scene and immediately develops passionate feelings for her obsession with Rosaline. This scene unquestionably foreshadows that Romeo is destined to fall in love with Juliet Despite the love shown by Romeo in the fifth scene, the lovers are destined to experience tragedy. The first event that signals the fall of Romeo and Juliet is when Tybalt, of the Capulets, kills Mercutio in a fight; “I'm hurt. A plague on both your homes! I'm fast. It's him... in the center of the card... he sighs; Being purged, a sparkling fire in the eyes of lovers; To be irritated by a sea nourished by lovers' tears: what else is there? A very discreet madness, a suffocating gall and a conservative sweetness”(). This statement by Romeo shows that he is beginning to fit the description of a tragic hero, as his flaws are becoming significantly more apparent. The tragic hero archetype essentially proves that Romeo's character is relevant, as his incarnation is reborn in the famous novel, The Great Gatsby, when the main character, Gatsby, meets his fate when he is shot and killed at the end of the novel . His tragedy was largely the result of his inexperience in his idealism. This archetype was used hundreds of years before Romeo and Juliet in the form of the Bible, but the concept of a protagonist's misfortune (like that of Romeo) is still relevant today, as it continues to recur in literature..