"Neutral Tones" fits into the larger theme of disillusionment in Hardy's work. The time in which he was writing (late 19th century and early 20th century) was a time of great philosophical and religious pessimism. Competition between different Christian sects was rampant, and there was also a significant growth in atheism. For the first time, numerous English public officials declared their lack of religious beliefs. The work of evolutionist Charles Darwin assisted this transformation.
Hardy—a former church restorer and Evangelical Christian—himself experienced a crisis and loss of faith in his twenties. According to priest and author Richard Franklin, Hardy regretted this loss of faith and continuously engaged with theological issues throughout his literary career. His most famous poem demonstrating his religious disillusionment is "God's Funeral," in which a funeral procession carries a "man-projected Figure" and walks toward the "oblivion" of the myth of God. God is not so much absent as disapproving in "Neutral Tones," showing the different ways in which Hardy engaged with God through his poetry. The white sunlight shining down on the scene of estrangement in "Neutral Tones" is "chidden of God," meaning that God rebukes the sunlight. The sun is normally considered to be life-giving, and so God's disapproval of the sunlight in "Neutral Tones" subverts the typical symbology. Later on in the poem, the speaker partially sums up his memory of the break-up with the phrase "the God-curst sun." The earlier chiding has escalated into an invocation of negativity and harm which is further demonstrated by the harshness of the word "curst" interrupting the rest of the poem's plain language. This poem suggests a belief in the bleak futility of life, something which Hardy does not shy away from in his writing.
