In "The Masque of the Red Death", what do the tripods with the flames represent? Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death"

The masquerade, a "voluptuous scene," with ornaments and
tapestries and stained glass windows in the various chambers, but there is no light of
any kind within the suite of chambers.  Instead, in the corridors there are heavy
tripods lighted with burning coals that project rays of light through the tinted glass
and by projections of its light, the rooms are illuminated.  But, the effect of
the projected light is Gothic, creating ghastly appearances, upon the faces and costumes
of the guests.  Especially in the black chamber, the light
produced

so
wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered that there were few of the
company bold enough to set foot with its precincts at
all.

It is as though
the chambers have a bizarre dreamlike quality.  The narrator
describes

much
glare and glitter and piquancy and phantasm....To and fro in the seven chambers there
stalked, in fact a multitude of
dreams.

The rays of light
that stream from the tripods seem to represent the flow of life, the flow of the dreams
of man, who has a multitude of dreams.  But, as the night progresses, the clock peals
and a grotesque and terrifying guest appears.  When Prince Prospero attempts to be rid
of this hideous interloper, he is overcome, falling "prostrate in death." With the
presence of the Red Death comes the death of all
the guests,

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And the life of the ebony clock went out with
that of the last of the gay.  And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and
Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over
all.

With the expiration of
life, the flames that give light and warmth to the seven ages of life also
expire. Truly, they are symbolic of the life-sustaining blood that courses through the
chambers of the human body.