Othello: Act 5 Analysis Iago's intelligence causes the self destruction of Othello. He appears to be the most intelligent person in the play, Othello, by the way he acts and handles some situations. Iago is set to plan revenge on Othello for not making him lieutenant. He gains the trust of Othello by telling lies to him, and these lies cause the destruction of Othello. Othello should have investigated on some of the outrageous things Iago has told him. Iago is simply just trying to gain Othello's trust. This is shown when Iago talks about killing Roderigo because he was saying bad things about Othello. "Nine or ten times I had thought t' have yerked hi