Different Representations of Love in the Works of William Shakespeare

This diploma thesis is concerned with different representations of the theme of love in William Shakespeare's works. The first part of the thesis deals with Shakespeare's biography and it points out the author's most prominent career and literary accomplishments in order to establish a context and time frame of his poetic and dramatic works. Consequently, there are explored different ways how the theme of love was approached throughout various historical and literary eras with particular attention to the development of English literature and the evolution of love poetry. In the main part of the theses, there are explored different ways how Shakespeare portrayed and understood the nature of love in his literary works. The concept of love in Shakespeare's repertoire is analysed with regard to the genres of his poetic works, namely narrative poems and sonnets, and his plays, specifically comedies, tragedies, and romances. For each of the genres there are chosen several individual plays or poems, which are then interpreted in connection to how they portray and relate to the theme of love