William Shakespeare coined the term “star-crossed lovers” in his play Romeo and Juliet (1597). In the play, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet come from rival families, fall in love, secretly marry, and die by drinking poison when one believes the other is dead. The basis of the term comes from astrology and the belief that the stars hold power over the lives of people—that stars embody the fates of all people. When the stars cross, they come together and then separate by force; likewise, the star-crossed lovers in literature fall in love but, due to circumstances outside their control, cannot remain together. Most often, the endings of these stories are tragic—one of, or both, the ill-fated lovers die by the end of the narrative.

The characters whom the fates bring together represent the archetype of the Lover. Lover archetypes are overcome by passion, emotion, and love and will act, sometimes rationally but often irrationally, out of the love they feel for their fated mate. One of the characters in the pair will often embody the archetype of the Innocent—a character who others consider morally pure. They do not mean to harm those around them; it happens due to outside circumstances.