This document discusses the two main plots in Shakespeare's play Othello: the personal plot surrounding the relationships between the main characters, and the public plot of Venice's war with the Turks. It asks how these two plots intersect and overlap in terms of the main themes of the play, and points to a line from Act I, scene iii that suggests the Turkish ships may be just for show rather than a real threat, connecting the public and personal plots.

1. One is the personal plot that unfolds around the relationships
between the characters—O thello, Iago, Desdemona, Cassio,
Rodrigo, and Emelia. The other plot is the more public one in
which Venice is at war with the Turks. How do these plots
intersect, and do they overlap in terms of some of the main
themes of the play? For instance, don’t overlook the line in Act
I, iii, regarding where the Turks are headed in their ships—“or
this cannot be, by no assay of reason: 'tis a pageant,to keep us
in false gaze.”