Summary
Amir and Emily enter stage. Amir heads for the coats and says it’s Emily’s night, they should celebrate, so he is going to pick up champagne and have a wonderful dinner. Jory says she would like to join him. Before he and Jory exit, Amir gives Emily a look. Alone together, Emily confronts Isaac about what he’s doing pushing back against Amir. Emily says he could have told her about the show over the phone. Isaac says he wanted it to be face-to-face. Emily says this is her home, and that “London… was a mistake.” Isaac says he doesn’t think she really believes that. He touches her and she pulls away.
Emily asks if that’s why he put her in the show, and Isaac says of course not, the whole idea for the show came from her. He makes another move, and while at first she doesn’t pull away, she subsequently resists. Isaac says he had no idea Amir was such a mess—and an alcoholic. Emily defends Amir, saying he just had a bad day at the office. Isaac assumes this means Amir knows about Jory, and reveals to Emily that Jory is making partner as the firm’s counteroffer to compete with Credit Suisse. Emily says she doesn’t understand. Isaac says the firm likes Jory and doesn’t like Amir. He mentions how Amir represented the imam, and Emily corrects him. Isaac says the newspaper piece made it look like the firm was representing a man who was raising money for terrorists, and Steven “went ballistic.” Isaac reveals that Amir broke down crying during a staff meeting and shouted that if the imam had been a rabbi, Steven wouldn’t have cared. Isaac says Steven thought the comment was antisemitic.
Emily says, “Isaac I’m sorry, but sometimes you people have a problem,” clarifying that she means Jews see antisemitism everywhere. Isaac says Steven is a fund-raiser for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, so he doesn’t know why Amir would have gone anywhere near the imam. Emily says Amir did it for her. Isaac says Amir doesn’t understand her—can’t understand her. He says that in her painting, Amir looks back at her with shame, anger, and pride because “the slave finally has the master’s wife.” Emily calls Isaac disgusting. Isaac insists she will cheat on Amir again, maybe not with him, but with someone, and then one day she will leave him.
Isaac tells Emily he is in love with her. Just as he leans in to kiss her—and she doesn’t move—the front door opens and Jory enters in a huff, saying to Isaac that they need to get out of there. She freezes when she sees the moment of intimacy between Isaac and Emily. Jory asks what the fuck is going on. Amir enters inflamed with anger and complaining about how Jory waited a week to tell him about the promotion and then walked away from him when he said something she didn’t like hearing. Jory doesn’t pay attention to Amir. Jory asks Emily if she’s having an affair with Isaac. While Jory tries to explain what she saw to Amir, Emily lies, claiming Isaac was consoling her because she became upset when Isaac told her the news about Jory making partner. Isaac goes along with the story, and Amir calls Jory evil for stealing his job and trying to destroy his marriage. Jory insists she knows what she saw. Amir explodes in anger, ranting about how his first office was a cleaning closet while Jory’s had a view of Central Park. He berates Jory for never getting to work before anyone else or being the last to leave. He says, “You think you’re the nigger here? Isaac I’m the nigger!! Me!!”
Isaac goes to Jory and says she doesn’t have to “listen to any more out of this asshole.” Jory tells Isaac not to touch her. Amir and Isaac escalate tensions by trading threats of fighting until they face off and Amir suddenly spits in Isaac’s face. Isaac wipes the spit off and says, “There’s a reason they call you people animals.” Isaac walks out alone. Amir tells Jory to get out. As she collects her things, Jory tells Amir that Mort is retiring and she is receiving his caseload. She says Mort told her Amir is duplicitous, making him a good litigator but also someone who is impossible to trust. She says he can call himself, adding that she assumes Mort isn’t taking Amir’s calls. Jory exits.
Emily asks Amir if he’s lost his mind. Amir paces, withdrawing into himself, his inward spiral deepening. Amir says Jory is right, Mort isn’t taking his calls. Emily goes to the kitchen and brings Amir a mug of coffee. When she returns, he asks if she’s sleeping with Isaac. Emily shakes her head, but then explains how in London, they were drinking, and he’d been talking about her art. She makes her way to Amir and says she’s disgusted with herself, and wishes she could take it back. Amir hits Emily in the face—a vicious blow. He hits her more, in rapid succession, described in the stage direction as: “uncontrolled violence as brutal as it needs to be in order to convey the discharge of a lifetime of discreetly building resentment.” Amir suddenly comes to his senses and says, “Oh, my God…” as knocking is heard from the door. Abe enters the apartment and sees Emily’s bloodied face as she lies on the ground. Abe looks at Amir and the lights go out.
Scene Four takes place six months later. Amir quietly packs up the apartment, muted and chastened in his movements. He has a thought and heads for the kitchen. Just then Abe and Emily arrive. Abe is wearing muted colors, unlike the vibrant colors he wore in the first scene, and is wearing a Muslim skullcap. Amir is surprised to see Emily. Abe won’t meet Amir’s gaze. At Emily’s insistence, Abe explains that he and his friend Tariq were at Starbucks. Tariq talked to a barista, who wasn’t interested in him. She asked about their clothing and their opinion on al-Qaeda. Tariq told her America created al-Qaeda, explaining that the CIA trained the mujahideen in Afghanistan, who became al-Qaeda. Tariq said America deserved what it got and what it was going to get. The police showed up and cuffed them, and the FBI met them at the station. Abe says he was interrogated and that the FBI seemed to have already had a file. He says they knew his immigration status was up for renewal, and that the FBI looks for Muslims with vulnerable statuses to manipulate them into working for them.
Emily goes to the kitchen for water after Abe asks her to stay. Amir calls a lawyer from the imam’s case and leaves a message asking for a call back. Amir tells Abe he needs to understand that it’s not a neutral world, and Abe needs to send a different message than the one that landed him in trouble with the FBI. Abe rejects the idea that to stay in America he will have to cooperate with the FBI and go into mosque pretending he’s planning an attack in order to entrap radicalized Muslims. Amir suggests it is better to be on the side of authorities than be deported to Pakistan.
Abe rejects the idea that Amir is living a better life in the U.S., revealing that he knows Amir was fired, and asking how he could have beaten Emily. Abe says Amir wants “something from these people [he] will never get.” Abe says he changed his name back, and that it’s disgusting how Amir will always turn on his own people, an act that doesn't make white Americans like him any better but makes them think he hates himself. Abe says that he looked up to Amir, but if Amir can’t make it in America, how could he. Abe says the Prophet conquered the world by making the world copy him. Abe says “they” have conquered the world, but “we” are going to get it back because it’s "our"—destiny, it’s in the Quran.
Emily enters. Abe doesn’t notice. Abe keeps talking, saying that for three hundred years they’ve been taking land, drawing borders, replacing laws, making Muslims look like them and marry their women. He says they disgraced them. Abe notices Emily listening and goes to the door. He apologizes and says he will handle it himself. He exits, leaving Amir and Emily alone. Amir mentions writing her letters she hasn’t replied to, and that she sent him a painting. He says he wanted her to have the apartment, but she says it isn’t hers. Amir asks why she dropped charges and says he saw the write-up about her in The New Yorker. Amir says he finally understands her work, which Emily says was naïve. Amir says he is sorry and Emily says she knows, and she had a part in what happened, saying her work made her blind. With emotion, Amir says he just wants her to be proud of him, and proud she was with him. After a beat, Emily says goodbye and asks him to stop writing her. She exits. Amir returns to packing, then unwraps the canvas, tearing the paper off to reveal that it is Emily’s portrait of him. The play ends with Amir taking a searching long look as the lights go out.
Analysis
The play reaches its climax at the end of Scene 3, when Akhtar reveals that the plots concerning Amir’s and Emily’s careers have been entwined in an unanticipated way. While Jory accompanies Amir to the liquor store to buy champagne to celebrate Emily’s inclusion in Isaac’s show, Isaac and Emily discuss the affair they had recently in London. Emily refers to the night they spent together as a mistake, reprimanding Isaac for coming into her home and trying to seduce her again. With this revelation, Akhtar reintroduces the theme of duplicity and forces the audience to reexamine how Isaac and Emily have interacted with each other earlier in the scene.
Rejected by Emily and angry at Amir, Isaac tells Emily that Jory made partner at Amir’s law firm instead of Amir. Isaac goes on to reveal that Amir’s association with Imam Fareed in the newspaper caused a stir at the firm. Amir cried while being reprimanded by his bosses, and Amir was accused by Steven of antisemitism when he told him that if the imam had been a rabbi, Steven wouldn’t have cared. Emily tells Isaac that Jews have a problem with seeing antisemitism everywhere and confesses to feeling guilty for having convinced Amir to support the imam. Isaac reveals more of his contempt for Amir, speaking in coded racist terms about how Amir can’t understand Emily, and that her portrait captures the shame, anger, and pride in Amir because “the slave finally has the master’s wife.” The comment is significant because it reveals how Isaac, despite his superficial endorsement of Islam and the fact that his wife is African-American, nonetheless believes that a white woman like Emily belongs with a white “master” like him.
Furthering the theme of duplicity, just as Isaac is about to kiss Emily, the door opens and Jory catches them together. Amir follows soon after, complaining about how she stormed off after he said something offensive. Jory’s demand to know what is going on between Isaac and Emily is met with more lies. Amir believes Emily when she claims that Isaac was merely consoling her, and he turns back to Jory, accusing her of trying to destroy not just his career but his marriage. Returning to the theme of the place of minorities in American society, Amir berates Jory for turning up late to work and for being promoted ahead of him despite him working harder. Amir explains the unfairness with a comment that calls back to his statement that “we are the new Jews,” claiming that he, having been denied opportunities to advance because of his racial background, is “the nigger here.” In the next moment, Amir doubles down on his prejudice by spitting in Isaac’s face—a gesture that symbolizes the antisemitism Amir earlier talks about his mother having instilled in him. Isaac retorts that “there’s a reason they call you people animals,” a racist statement that reveals more of Isaac’s Islamophobia. Before she leaves, Jory reveals to Amir that Mort doesn’t trust Amir because Amir is duplicitous, which makes him a good lawyer but someone who is impossible to trust.
After their guests leave, Emily reveals to Amir that she had an affair with Isaac. Amir erupts in violent anger, beating Emily until her face is bloody. The action symbolizes Amir’s duplicitous hypocrisy: Even though he criticizes Islam for advocating beating one’s wife if she disobeys, Amir does exactly that. The multilayered drama of Scene 3 finally ends with Amir suddenly realizing what he is doing at the exact moment Abe comes to the apartment and sees Emily’s bloody face.
The brief fourth scene of Disgraced shows the aftermath of the night that disrupted Amir and Emily’s lives. Six months later, Amir is packing up his apartment in a chastened manner, suggesting he can no longer afford it because he has lost his job and separated from Emily. Abe and Emily arrive unexpectedly. In stark contrast to the Americanized way he dressed in earlier scenes, Abe is wearing traditional Islamic clothes and has changed his name back to Hussein, suggesting a transformation in his Muslim-American identity.
While talking with Amir, it becomes clear that Amir’s loss of status and stability has thoroughly shaken Abe and caused him to give up on notions of assimilation into mainstream American culture. In revolt, he has become radicalized, and has come under increased scrutiny from the FBI, who he suspects want to pressure him to act as an informant under threat of deportation. Abe leaves after referring ominously to Muslims’ destiny to take back the world from the white people who conquered it. With Abe’s turn away from ideas of assimilation, Akhtar invites the audience to question the extent to which young Muslims like Abe can become radicalized in reaction to being treated as extremists instead of as fellow Americans.
The play ends with Emily and Amir briefly discussing Emily’s success as an artist and how she hasn’t been returning his letters. After telling Amir to stop writing to her, Emily leaves. Alone in his spacious Upper East Side apartment—what was once the symbol of his having succeeded in America—Amir unwraps the portrait Emily painted of him and stares searchingly into it. Disgraced closes on this symbolic image, which suggests that Amir questions his place now that he has lost everything, wondering whether his Muslim background meant there had always been something tenuous about the status he attained.
