Though initially optimistic, as the Time Traveller journeys into the future and discovers the dystopian society of the Eloi and Morlocks, the mood of the novel becomes increasingly eerie and unsettling. The Traveller describes his encounter with a world that is overgrown with vegetation and strewn with crumbling buildings and statues—a society in a state of decline. As the Traveller is confronted with the decaying civilization of the Eloi, the text is infused with a sense of unease and uncertainty.
The mood also reflects the Time Traveller's sense of isolation and disconnection as he finds himself marooned in the future. As the reader has access to his internal monologue via the frame story, they experience the Traveller's horror at the loss of his time machine, and his growing dread as he discovers the Morlock kingdom and their relationship with the gentle Eloi.
The novel's sinister mood deepens as the Traveller becomes increasingly aware of the vast chasm that separates him from the future society and its inhabitants:
But that morning it left me absolutely lonely again—terribly alone. I began to think of this house of mine, of this fireside, of some of you, and with such thoughts came a longing that was pain.
The Traveller notes the pain induced by his loneliness and displacement from his time and context. He is "absolutely lonely" without any certainty that he will ever be able to return to his true time and place.
This physical and temporal displacement mirrors the barriers that technology can create between individuals, and generates a subtle warning about the capacity of technological advancement to atomize its consumers and isolate people from their social spheres. Through his cultivation of a desolate, fearful mood, H.G. Wells conveys his concern about a future in which we allow technology and social inequality to advance unchecked.
