The character of Tom in The Glass MenagerieTom Wingfield has a dual role in The Glass Menagerie. The first Tom is the narrator, who introduces his second self, the character. In his fifth soliloquy, Tom the narrator indicates that time has detached him from the drama, “for time is the longest distance between two places” (Williams 1568). In the final monologue, Tom recounts how he lives and relives the story in his memory, although he is detached from the participants in the original affair. Like his father, “a man on the telephone who fell in love with long distances” (Williams 1523), Tom fell in love with the long distance that is time. Tom is a sensitive and artistic man who is forced by circumstances to take a phenomenological approach. situation. He is forced to live and relive the situation in the play, in which he sought and found what he believed to be freedom. Although he escapes the situation, he does not find freedom; his conscience forces him to dwell on the situation until he finds meaning in it. Because Mr. Wingfield, Laura, Amanda and Jim are part of ...