Who is Haines in Ulysses?
Haines is an English student from Oxford staying at the Martello tower in Episode 1. He studies Irish folklore and language, and kept Stephen awake raving in his sleep about a black panther. To Stephen he stands for the English conqueror who finds Ireland quaint.
Edited by Aidan O'Leary · Last updated 30 October 2026
Where it appears
Episode 1, Telemachus. Stephen, asking Mulligan how long their guest is staying.
—How long is Haines going to stay in this tower?
What it means in plain English
Haines is polite and interested, but suggests that history is to blame for Ireland's wrongs, as if no one alive were responsible.
When the old milkwoman arrives, he speaks Irish to her; she thinks it is French.
Literary context
He is based on Samuel Chenevix Trench, who really did stay at the tower in 1904 and had a nightmare about a panther.
References
- Ulysses, Episodes 1, 9, 10 and 14
- Richard Ellmann, James Joyce (revised edition, 1982)
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Questions readers ask
Did the panther incident happen?
Yes. Trench fired a revolver in the night at the tower, which helped make Joyce leave.
Related terms
Buck Mulligan
Stephen's witty, blasphemous flatmate, a medical student. He opens the novel parodying the Catholic Mass at the tower.
Martello tower
The squat coastal defence tower at Sandycove where Stephen lodges in Episode 1. A real building, now a Joyce museum.
The cracked lookingglass of a servant
“The cracked lookingglass of a servant” is Stephen Dedalus's bitter description of Irish art in Episode 1. Holding Mulligan's cracked shaving mirror, stolen from a maid, he says Irish art can only reflect itself in a broken mirror owned by someone in service to another nation.