"Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true"
About this Quote
Dickens is warning about a future he can barely name, and that’s what gives the line its bite. “Electric communication” is both thrilling and faintly sinister: a Victorian shorthand for the telegraph-age promise that wires could shrink distances, accelerate business, and make modern life hum. He’s not denying its utility. He’s drawing a boundary around what technology can’t transmit: the moral force of presence.
The sentence is built like a refusal. “Will never be a substitute” lands as an absolute, not a preference. Then Dickens pivots from gadgetry to anatomy - “the face” - and then to something even less measurable: “with their soul.” He’s sketching a theory of courage that’s social and embodied. Bravery isn’t merely a private virtue you download or instruct into someone; it’s coaxed out of you by being seen, held accountable, and recognized by another person who believes you can rise to the moment.
Subtextually, this is Dickens the reformer, not just the entertainer. His novels are crowded with scenes where goodness is contagious and cruelty is enabled by distance: bureaucracies that process suffering at arm’s length, institutions that replace care with procedure. “Electric communication” becomes a stand-in for any system that increases connection while decreasing responsibility.
The line also anticipates a modern anxiety: that faster contact can produce thinner relationships. Dickens argues that the most consequential transmission is not information but encouragement - the kind that happens when a human face, animated by conviction, makes you feel brave enough to be “true,” not merely efficient.
The sentence is built like a refusal. “Will never be a substitute” lands as an absolute, not a preference. Then Dickens pivots from gadgetry to anatomy - “the face” - and then to something even less measurable: “with their soul.” He’s sketching a theory of courage that’s social and embodied. Bravery isn’t merely a private virtue you download or instruct into someone; it’s coaxed out of you by being seen, held accountable, and recognized by another person who believes you can rise to the moment.
Subtextually, this is Dickens the reformer, not just the entertainer. His novels are crowded with scenes where goodness is contagious and cruelty is enabled by distance: bureaucracies that process suffering at arm’s length, institutions that replace care with procedure. “Electric communication” becomes a stand-in for any system that increases connection while decreasing responsibility.
The line also anticipates a modern anxiety: that faster contact can produce thinner relationships. Dickens argues that the most consequential transmission is not information but encouragement - the kind that happens when a human face, animated by conviction, makes you feel brave enough to be “true,” not merely efficient.
Quote Details
| Topic | Friendship |
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