Aristotle's created the term tragic hero, deriving it from ancient Greek plays of Sophicles, Euripides, and other Greek playwrights. Aristotle used the ancient Greek plays to create a definition of the tragic hero in which they must possess five main characteristics. Shakespeare in the later 1500s used Aristotle to create numerous plays called tragedies, but still included those five characteristics (Aristotle). Some of Shakespeare's tragedies are Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, and King Lear. Shakespeare used Aristotle's tragic hero definition and changed only a little to suit his plays. All of Shakespeare's tragedies have a tragic hero and follow Shakespeare's guideline. One tragedy is the play Romeo and Juliet in which two lovers, Romeo and Juliet, face their downfall by their warring families that cannot get along. If that is a tragedy, there must be a tragic hero. Romeo is the tragic hero of Romeo and Juliet.

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