Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Pessimistic and Dark
The critic Clifford Leech points out that in Shakespeare's tragedies, there is always a time before the play when everything was great: Hamlet had a living dad; King Lear wasn't pitting his daughters against each other. Leech calls this "the golden world." But, in Webster's plays, there's never been a "golden world": people seem to have always lived in a nightmare land, where might makes right and nice guys finish last. Webster's good characters aren't deeply drawn—but his evil characters seem real and alive: Camillo is nothing next to Flamineo or Vittoria. And the little pieces of philosophy the different characters offer up typically have a dark, cynical message. As Flamineo says when he's dying (referencing Candlemas/Groundhog Day traditions): "mourn if the sun shine, for fear of the pitiful remainder of winter to come."