MERLINA ADDAMS (wednesday)

Gomez and Morticia had two children, a son called Pugsley and a daughter called Wednesday. Wednesday was said to have been named after the phrase, "Wednesday's child is full of woe," from the poem Monday's Child. Her middle name, Friday, corresponds to the 1887 version of the poem. In the television show she was a sweet-natured, innocent, happy child, largely concerned with her fearsome pet spiders. A favorite toy was her Marie Antoinette doll, which Pugsley had guillotined. The movies gave Wednesday a much more serious and mature personality with a deadpan wit and a morbid fascination with trying to physically harm, or possibly murder, her brother (she was seen strapping him into an electric chair, for example, and preparing to pull the switch); she was apparently often successful, but Pugsley never died. Like most members of the family, he seemed to be inhumanly resilient.

For his part, Pugsley was largely oblivious of the harm his sister tried to inflict on him, or an enthusiastic supporter of it, viewing all attempts as fun and games. In his first incarnation in the New Yorker cartoons, Pugsley was depicted as a diabolical, malevolent boy-next-door. In the television series, he was a devoted older brother and an inventive and mechanical genius. In the movies he lost his intelligence and independence, and became Wednesday's sidekick and younger brother, cheerfully helping her in her evil deeds.