Mulligan tosses Stephen his "Latin quarter hat" as the young
men prepare to begin their day outside the tower, and in Proteus
Stephen, reminiscing about his time in Paris, thinks of the
counter-cultural poses that both he and Mulligan are striking
in the world: "My Latin quarter hat. God, we simply must dress
the character." (Haines too
dresses informally in a "soft grey hat.")
Gifford describes Stephen's hat as “A soft or slouch hat
associated with the art and student worlds of the Latin
Quarter in Paris, as against the 'hard' hats (bowlers or
derbies) then fashionable in Dublin.” In December 1902 Joyce
mailed a Parisian photo-postcard of himself posing in such a
hat to his friend J. F. Byrne.
The look contrasts sharply with most of the headgear that one
would have seen on Dublin streets.
In Proteus Stephen thinks of this bohemian topper
as "my Hamlet hat." But its resemblance to
certain clerical chapeaux causes some people to refer to
Stephen as a clergyman. Early in Oxen of the Sun he
is described as having the "mien of a frere,"
and near the end of the chapter someone says or thinks, “Jay,
look at the drunken minister coming out of the maternity
hospal! Benedicat vos omnipotens Deus, Pater et
Filius.” Shortly later, he is called "Parson
Steve." At the beginning of the next chapter, Circe,
two British soldiers call out derisively to him as "parson."
