Usage of the words: bareness, dinginess, listlessness

[Marcelinx]

How could you tell how much of it was lies? It might be true that the average human being was better off now than he had been before the Revolution. The only evidence to the contrary was the mute protest in your own bones, the instinctive feeling that the conditions you lived in were intolerable and that at some other time they must have been different. It struck him that the truly characteristic thing about modern life was not its cruelty and insecurity, but simply its bareness, its dinginess, its listlessness.
From George Orwell's 1984.

What do the words in bold mean? I tried to look them up in the dictionary, but there are too many definitions.

[Alan]

Hi Marcelinx,

How do you find 1984? Are you enjoying reading it?

In 1984 Orwell is describing what life is like in what was Britain before the Revolution. He is using words to describe how Winston Smith finds life. 'Bareness' suggests that life is empty and that there is nothing different from day to day - it has no highlights or excitement. 'Dinginess' refers to the boring clothes that people wear, the dullness of the buildings, the absence of colour - everything seems grey, dull and dirty or drab. 'Listlessness' describes the way people live. They feel both bored and restless. They have no enthusiasm to work or be active because they lack energy.

Hope that helps.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[Marcelinx]

Thank you for your reply, it did help me a lot. I am enjoying 1984 very much, it made me reflect about how important it is to have privacy.