Prince Prospero uses his wealth to hide the rich away from disease. He lets him destroy the country and doesn't try to help him in any way. His seclusion behind the masquerade is a failed attempt to use his wealth and position to escape what cannot be contained. It is at the climax of Poe's story that Prince Prospero attempts to confront this scourge head on. “He brandished a drawn dagger” (Poe 5). This is the last action that Prince Prospero can do before being consumed by illness. As it is eventually revealed, this all-consuming disease knows no distinctions of class or status, and it penetrates people's lives.