Disgraced

by

Ayad Akhtar

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Disgraced makes teaching easy.

Emily Hughes Kapoor Character Analysis

Amir’s wife, Emily, is a beautiful, white artist of about 30. Whereas Amir renounced his Muslim faith years ago and tries to distance himself from Islam, Emily is fascinated by his Islamic culture and thinks that Amir’s opinions are wrong. And although Emily thinks that she’s worldly and open-minded, the way she dismisses Amir’s lived experience with the faith makes him feel unseen and resentful. She, along with Amir’s nephew Abe, pressure Amir into speaking out in support of Imam Fareed (who’s been falsely accused of funding Islamic terrorism), which causes Amir’s bosses to discriminate against him and pass him up for a promotion. Emily also uses traditional Islamic patterns in her artwork (despite having no real connection to Islam herself), and she paints a portrait of Amir that portrays him as an outsider to white culture. Isaac, the art curator she’s working with, points out that this is Orientalism (the tendency for Westerners to portray Eastern cultures in a patronizing, exploitative way). However, neither of them seem to have a problem with profiting off of Emily’s success as a painter. When Emily and Amir have Isaac and Jory (Amir’s work colleague) over for dinner, Emily shames Amir for his negative views of Islam in front of their friends, which emboldens Isaac to be overtly racist toward Amir. The night culminates in Amir finding out that Emily and Isaac have been having an affair, which leads him to take out all of his pent-up shame and resentment on Emily. He beats her until her face is bloodied, an incident that destroys their marriage. At the end of the play, Emily and Amir are separated. And although Emily seems afraid of Amir, she decides not to press charges and apologizes to him for her disrespectful artwork and the role she played in what happened. Although Emily is the victim in this situation, the way she treats Amir throughout the play is a testament to how even well-meaning, progressive people can be unintentionally racist.

Emily Hughes Kapoor Quotes in Disgraced

The Disgraced quotes below are all either spoken by Emily Hughes Kapoor or refer to Emily Hughes Kapoor. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Unintentional Racism and Resentment Theme Icon
).
Scene 1 Quotes

High ceilings, parquet floors, crown molding. The works.

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:

I think it’s a little weird. That you want to paint me after seeing a painting of a slave.

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Isaac , Diego Velázquez
Related Symbols: Portrait
Page Number: 6
Explanation and Analysis:

Why’d he get you a statue of Siva? […] He doesn’t think you’re Hindu, does he?

Related Characters: Emily Hughes Kapoor (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Jory , Mort
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:

I don’t like what’s happening. Somebody’s gotta do something about it.

Related Characters: Emily Hughes Kapoor (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Hussein (Abe Jensen) , Imam Fareed
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:

You know how much easier things are for me since I changed my name?

Related Characters: Hussein (Abe Jensen) (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor
Page Number: 13
Explanation and Analysis:

So Rivkah and I’d gotten to the point where we were trading notes. And one day, my mother found one of the notes. Of course it was signed, Rivkah. Rivkah? my mom says. That's a Jewish name […] So I tell my mom, No, she’s not Jewish. But she knew the name was Jewish. If I ever hear that name in this house again, Amir, she said, I’ll break your bones. You will end up with a Jew over my dead body. Then she spat in my face […] Next day? Rivkah comes up to me in the hall with a note. Hi, Amir, she says. Eyes sparkling. I look at her and say, You’ve got the name of a Jew. She smiles. Yes, I’m Jewish, she says […] Then I spit in her face.

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Hussein (Abe Jensen) , Amir’s Mother , Rivkah
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:

White women have no self-respect. How can someone respect themselves when they think they have to take off their clothes to make people like them?

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Hussein (Abe Jensen) , Imam Fareed , Amir’s Mother
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:
Scene 2 Quotes

I think you’re overthinking this.

Related Characters: Emily Hughes Kapoor (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Imam Fareed , Steven , Mort
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:

Let me get this straight: Some waiter is a dick to me in a restaurant and you want to make a painting. But if it’s something that actually might affect my livelihood, you don’t even want to believe there could be a problem.

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Imam Fareed , Diego Velázquez , Steven , Mort
Related Symbols: Portrait
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:

About me being a white woman with no right to be using Islamic forms? I think you’re wrong about that.

Related Characters: Emily Hughes Kapoor (speaker), Isaac
Page Number: 29
Explanation and Analysis:

You know what you’re going to be accused of… […] Orientalism.

Related Characters: Isaac (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:

The Islamic tiling tradition, Isaac? Is a doorway to the most extraordinary freedom. And which only comes through a kind of profound submission. In my case, of course it’s not submission to Islam but to the formal language. The pattern. The repetition. And the quiet that this work requires of me? It’s extraordinary.

Related Characters: Emily Hughes Kapoor (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Isaac
Page Number: 31
Explanation and Analysis:
Scene 3 Quotes

He knew about my name change. Your birth name is not Kapoor, Steven says. It’s Abdullah. Why did you change it?

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Imam Fareed , Steven , Mort
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:

The work you’re doing with the Islamic tradition is important and new. It needs to be seen. Widely.

Related Characters: Isaac (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor, Jory
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:

Moor? Haven’t heard that word in a minute.

Related Characters: Jory (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor, Isaac , Diego Velázquez
Related Symbols: Portrait
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:

So there you are in your six-hundred-dollar Charvet shirt, like Velázquez’s brilliant apprentice-slave in his lace collar, adorned in the splendors of the world you're now so clearly a part of… And yet... […] The question remains […] Of your Place.

Related Characters: Isaac (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor, Jory , Diego Velázquez
Related Symbols: Portrait
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:

It’s a nightmare at the airports.

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Isaac , Jory
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:

Those agents are working hard not to discriminate… Then here’s this guy who comes up to them and calls them out…

Related Characters: Emily Hughes Kapoor (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Isaac , Jory
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:

I picked up the recipe when I was on a Fulbright in Seville.

Related Characters: Emily Hughes Kapoor (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Isaac , Jory
Related Symbols: Portrait
Page Number: 56
Explanation and Analysis:

I was horrified by it, okay? Absolutely horrified. […] That we were finally winning. […] It's tribal, Jor. It is in the bones. You have no idea how I was brought up. You have to work real hard to root that shit out.

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Isaac , Jory , Amir’s Mother
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:

Fucking closet jihadist.

Related Characters: Isaac (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor, Jory
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:

The expression on that face? Shame. Anger. Pride. Yeah. The pride he was talking about. The slave finally has the master’s wife.

Related Characters: Isaac (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor, Diego Velázquez
Related Symbols: Portrait
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:
Scene 4 Quotes

Do we want to blow stuff up? How often did I read the Koran? […] Do I hate America?

Related Characters: Hussein (Abe Jensen) (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor, Tariq , Barista
Page Number: 80
Explanation and Analysis:

When you step out of your parents’ house, you need to understand that it’s not a neutral world out there. Not right now. Not for you. You have to be mindful about sending a different message.

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Hussein (Abe Jensen) , Imam Fareed , Tariq
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis:
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Emily Hughes Kapoor Quotes in Disgraced

The Disgraced quotes below are all either spoken by Emily Hughes Kapoor or refer to Emily Hughes Kapoor. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Unintentional Racism and Resentment Theme Icon
).
Scene 1 Quotes

High ceilings, parquet floors, crown molding. The works.

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:

I think it’s a little weird. That you want to paint me after seeing a painting of a slave.

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Isaac , Diego Velázquez
Related Symbols: Portrait
Page Number: 6
Explanation and Analysis:

Why’d he get you a statue of Siva? […] He doesn’t think you’re Hindu, does he?

Related Characters: Emily Hughes Kapoor (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Jory , Mort
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:

I don’t like what’s happening. Somebody’s gotta do something about it.

Related Characters: Emily Hughes Kapoor (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Hussein (Abe Jensen) , Imam Fareed
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:

You know how much easier things are for me since I changed my name?

Related Characters: Hussein (Abe Jensen) (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor
Page Number: 13
Explanation and Analysis:

So Rivkah and I’d gotten to the point where we were trading notes. And one day, my mother found one of the notes. Of course it was signed, Rivkah. Rivkah? my mom says. That's a Jewish name […] So I tell my mom, No, she’s not Jewish. But she knew the name was Jewish. If I ever hear that name in this house again, Amir, she said, I’ll break your bones. You will end up with a Jew over my dead body. Then she spat in my face […] Next day? Rivkah comes up to me in the hall with a note. Hi, Amir, she says. Eyes sparkling. I look at her and say, You’ve got the name of a Jew. She smiles. Yes, I’m Jewish, she says […] Then I spit in her face.

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Hussein (Abe Jensen) , Amir’s Mother , Rivkah
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:

White women have no self-respect. How can someone respect themselves when they think they have to take off their clothes to make people like them?

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Hussein (Abe Jensen) , Imam Fareed , Amir’s Mother
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:
Scene 2 Quotes

I think you’re overthinking this.

Related Characters: Emily Hughes Kapoor (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Imam Fareed , Steven , Mort
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:

Let me get this straight: Some waiter is a dick to me in a restaurant and you want to make a painting. But if it’s something that actually might affect my livelihood, you don’t even want to believe there could be a problem.

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Imam Fareed , Diego Velázquez , Steven , Mort
Related Symbols: Portrait
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:

About me being a white woman with no right to be using Islamic forms? I think you’re wrong about that.

Related Characters: Emily Hughes Kapoor (speaker), Isaac
Page Number: 29
Explanation and Analysis:

You know what you’re going to be accused of… […] Orientalism.

Related Characters: Isaac (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:

The Islamic tiling tradition, Isaac? Is a doorway to the most extraordinary freedom. And which only comes through a kind of profound submission. In my case, of course it’s not submission to Islam but to the formal language. The pattern. The repetition. And the quiet that this work requires of me? It’s extraordinary.

Related Characters: Emily Hughes Kapoor (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Isaac
Page Number: 31
Explanation and Analysis:
Scene 3 Quotes

He knew about my name change. Your birth name is not Kapoor, Steven says. It’s Abdullah. Why did you change it?

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Imam Fareed , Steven , Mort
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:

The work you’re doing with the Islamic tradition is important and new. It needs to be seen. Widely.

Related Characters: Isaac (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor, Jory
Page Number: 44
Explanation and Analysis:

Moor? Haven’t heard that word in a minute.

Related Characters: Jory (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor, Isaac , Diego Velázquez
Related Symbols: Portrait
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:

So there you are in your six-hundred-dollar Charvet shirt, like Velázquez’s brilliant apprentice-slave in his lace collar, adorned in the splendors of the world you're now so clearly a part of… And yet... […] The question remains […] Of your Place.

Related Characters: Isaac (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor, Jory , Diego Velázquez
Related Symbols: Portrait
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:

It’s a nightmare at the airports.

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Isaac , Jory
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:

Those agents are working hard not to discriminate… Then here’s this guy who comes up to them and calls them out…

Related Characters: Emily Hughes Kapoor (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Isaac , Jory
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:

I picked up the recipe when I was on a Fulbright in Seville.

Related Characters: Emily Hughes Kapoor (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Isaac , Jory
Related Symbols: Portrait
Page Number: 56
Explanation and Analysis:

I was horrified by it, okay? Absolutely horrified. […] That we were finally winning. […] It's tribal, Jor. It is in the bones. You have no idea how I was brought up. You have to work real hard to root that shit out.

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Isaac , Jory , Amir’s Mother
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:

Fucking closet jihadist.

Related Characters: Isaac (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor, Jory
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:

The expression on that face? Shame. Anger. Pride. Yeah. The pride he was talking about. The slave finally has the master’s wife.

Related Characters: Isaac (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor, Diego Velázquez
Related Symbols: Portrait
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:
Scene 4 Quotes

Do we want to blow stuff up? How often did I read the Koran? […] Do I hate America?

Related Characters: Hussein (Abe Jensen) (speaker), Amir Kapoor/Abdullah , Emily Hughes Kapoor, Tariq , Barista
Page Number: 80
Explanation and Analysis:

When you step out of your parents’ house, you need to understand that it’s not a neutral world out there. Not right now. Not for you. You have to be mindful about sending a different message.

Related Characters: Amir Kapoor/Abdullah (speaker), Emily Hughes Kapoor, Hussein (Abe Jensen) , Imam Fareed , Tariq
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis: