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What do the welded locks symbolize in "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe?

The welded locks symbolize Prospero and his guests' fear of the outside.


Prospero and his guests try to seal themselves in the abbey and keep the outside world out. Instead of trying to help people who are suffering, the rich and the nobles decided to flee the kingdom’s troubles and let the sick fend for themselves.


To evade the Red Death pillaging his kingdom, Prospero built an abbey where he and “a thousand hale and...

The welded locks symbolize Prospero and his guests' fear of the outside.


Prospero and his guests try to seal themselves in the abbey and keep the outside world out. Instead of trying to help people who are suffering, the rich and the nobles decided to flee the kingdom’s troubles and let the sick fend for themselves.


To evade the Red Death pillaging his kingdom, Prospero built an abbey where he and “a thousand hale and light-hearted friends” could distance themselves from the plague.



A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. 



These iron gates and welded locks are meant to protect Prospero and his guests from the infected public's illnesses and other concerns, symbolizing the reality of the situation that Prospero and the others are so desperately evading.  Thus, the gates and locks symbolize Prospero’s fear. He is trying to keep the Red Death, and death itself, out.


Reality has no place in Prospero’s world. He has built himself mental walls, too. This is why six months into hiding, when half of the people of his kingdom are dead, he throws a party.



It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.



Again, Prospero is not taking any responsibility. He is not showing leadership. He is a coward and a negligent leader. When he should be finding a way to combat the Red Death and help his people, he runs away and hides.

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