Disgraced

by

Ayad Akhtar

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Disgraced makes teaching easy.
Isaac is an art curator who’s working with Emily; he’s the husband of Amir’s work colleague Jory. He decides to support Emily’s career even though he knows that her paintings may offend people, as she’s a white woman from a non-Islamic culture who uses Islamic imagery in her art. Isaac thinks that Emily’s work is innovative and lucrative—and he encourages her to keep using traditional Islamic patterns in her paintings, knowing that this will also benefit his career as an art curator. At a dinner party at Amir and Emily’s apartment, Isaac (who’s Jewish) and Amir (who’s of Pakistani descent and was raised Muslim) get into a heated debate about Islam. Amir is critical of the problematic values (like antisemitism and wife-beating) that he believes the Qur’an espouses, but Isaac is adamant that Islamic culture is beautiful. He intermittently brags about being well-traveled and well-read, making it clear that he wants to seem worldly and sophisticated. At the same time, however, Isaac is overtly prejudiced toward Muslim people, admitting that he’s suspicious of South Asian people in airports. He even calls Amir a “closet jihadist” (Islamic terrorist) when Amir leaves the room. The dinner party culminates in Jory and Amir finding out that Isaac and Emily are having an affair, which leads to a fight: Amir spits in Isaac’s face, and Isaac says that this behavior is why “you people” (meaning Muslims) are called “animals.” Isaac, like Emily, seemingly wants to enjoy and benefit from the specific aspects of Islamic culture that he wants to acknowledge—all the while dismissing or actively discriminating against actual South Asian/Muslim people.

Isaac Quotes in Disgraced

The Disgraced quotes below are all either spoken by Isaac or refer to Isaac . 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

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:
Scene 2 Quotes

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

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:
Get the entire Disgraced LitChart as a printable PDF.
Disgraced PDF

Isaac Quotes in Disgraced

The Disgraced quotes below are all either spoken by Isaac or refer to Isaac . 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

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:
Scene 2 Quotes

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

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: