| “ | Can you look around this world and believe in the goodness of a God who rules it? Famine, Pestilence, War, Disease and Death! They rule this world. | „ |
| ~ Prince Prospero |
Prince Prospero, also simply known as Prospero, is the main antagonist of the 1964 adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death.
He was portrayed by the late Vincent Price, who also played Dr. Phibes in The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again, Professor Henry Jerrod in House of Wax, Cardinal Richelieu in the 1948 adaptation of The Three Musketeers, King Richard III in the 1962 adaptation of The Tower of London, Dr. Goldfoot in Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine and Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, Egghead in the 1960s Batman TV series, Professor Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective, January Q. Irontail in Here Comes Peter Cottontail, the narrator of Thriller, Matthew Hopkins in Witchfinder General, Lord Edward Whitman in Cry of the Banshee, Edward Lionheart in Theater of Blood, one of the Sub-humans in Fire and Ice, Sinister Man in Bloodbath at the House of Death, himself in Escapes, Phantom in the Disneyland Paris attraction Phantom Manor, and Zigzag in The Thief and the Cobbler.
Personality[]
Prince Prospero is ruthless, decadent, and cruel. Prospero was born and raised a Satanist, and has a very cynical mindset on the topic of faith. He believes that God is the truly corrupt one and that Satan is the only God that truly lives on. He has a nihilistic mindset, and he is completely dispassionate and apathetic to the suffering of others and even sees amusement in it. When he is offended by Gino, he orders the village burned and him executed. When Hop-Toad has Alfredo (who is the closest thing to a friend Prospero has) humiliated and killed, Prospero holds nothing against Hop-Toad and even pays him for the entertainment.
Despite all of these qualities, Prospero does have some qualities that humanize him. Despite the confidence he has on his belief in Satan's protection, he does hold mild fear of the red death, forbidding the use of red in his guest's attire. While he holds contempt for her faith, he finds a fascination and even a warped sense of infatuation towards Francesca, dressing her in lavish gowns and even releases her fiance out into the world upon her request, with the intent of converting her to his side in the end.