Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 7: Trust and Betrayal

[ysabetwordsmith]

This installment discusses the themes of trust and betrayal, hope and disappointment regarding Wednesday Addams in Wednesday.

Here is the character study:
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 1: Introduction
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 2: Ethnicity & Linguistics
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 3: An Outcast
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 4: Thoughts and Feelings
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 5: Relationships
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 6: Solitary Accomplishments
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 7: Trust and Betrayal
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 8: Connected Characters
Meta: "Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 9: Enid

See also:
"Why I Love Wednesday Addams" Part 1: Introduction


The whole mess of relationships in Wednesday relates to the recurring themes of trust and betrayal, hope and disappointment, throughout Season 1. Since these themes also play major roles in both Gothic literature and teen drama, you can see why the two genres mesh so well. Episode 1 starts out with Wednesday's parents Gomez and Morticia hoping that Wednesday will like Nevermore Academy, while Wednesday expects only more disappointment. Enid Sinclair immediately puts her trust in Wednesday, trying to create a friendship out of thin air; this quickly hits the rocks, although they become surprisingly close despite their difficulties. Wednesday routinely betrays people, from breaking school rules to breaking into Xavier Thorpe's art shed. She is betrayed in turn by Tyler Galpin, who eventually raises his level of creepiness to where even Wednesday looks horrified by it. There's a lot of vulnerability in play.
Hope and trust are about expectations. Disappointment and betrayal are about expectancy violation. Part of growing up, or surviving a horror series, is learning to manage your expectations. This requires clear communication, which Wednesday is bad at, Enid is not finished learning, and villains actively avoid. However, it offers tremendous potential for the series going forward. How will characters deal with the disappointments and betrayals? Will Wednesday choose to stay a loner, or try to learn better relationship skills in hopes of maintaining friends or at least allies? Will Enid realize that Wednesday has little experience with friendship and less social perception, thus violating expectations as much out of ignorance as indifference? Solid canonical evidence exists for a range of interpretations.

Wednesday Addams: And just like that, my hopes were dashed against the rocks of bitter disappointment. My foe was no psychotic killer. More like a bunch of high school clowns.
-- Best Wednesday Quotes

Wednesday Addams: How many fathers hand their daughter a fencing blade when she's five?
Gomez Addams: Your saber strokes were an essay in perfection.
Wednesday Addams: Or teach her how to swim with sharks?
Gomez Addams: They found you as cold-blooded as I do.
Wednesday Addams: The right way to flay a rattlesnake?
Gomez Addams: They really do taste like chicken when prepared properly.
Wednesday Addams: The point is, you taught me how to be strong and independent. How to navigate myself in a world full of treachery and prejudice. You are the reason I understand how imperative it is that I never lose sight of myself. So as far as fatherhood goes, I would say you've been more than adequate.
Gomez Addams: Gracias, Wednesday.
This quote comes from a TV series ‘Wednesday’. The scene where this moment comes from is from Season 1 Episode 5, with the title of ‘You Reap What You Woe’

Enid: Wish me luck.
Wednesday: If he breaks your heart, I'll nail gun his.
-- Best Wednesday Addams Quotes

"There are monsters everywhere. And sometimes the monsters we least suspect are the most dangerous. They don’t need teeth and claws to terrify. They hide in the shadows until no one is looking. And then they strike."
-- Wednesday Addams

Wednesday Addams: I always believed relying on other people to be a sign of weakness. That inevitably they would lead me to disappointment. Turns out I've been the disappointment.
This quote comes from a TV series ‘Wednesday’. The scene where this moment comes from is from Season 1 Episode 8, with the title of ‘A Murder of Woes’

Wednesday Addams: Do you always speak in riddles?
Goody Addams: Do you always seek simple answers? The path of a Raven is a solitary one. You end up alone, unable to trust others, only seeing the darkness within them.
Wednesday Addams: Is that supposed to scare me?
Goody Addams: It should.
-- Best Wednesday Quotes

Xavier Thorpe: When I was in the cell I said a lot of... things. Being your friend should come with a warning label. But... I don't know a lot of people who would take an arrow for me. So... Welcome to the 21st century, Addams. (gifts her a smartphone) My number's in there already.
Wednesday Addams: That's a bold move. I hope you're not expecting me to call.
Xavier Thorpe: No, never. I'd settle for a text, though.
This quote comes from a TV series ‘Wednesday’. The scene where this moment comes from is from Season 1 Episode 8, with the title of ‘A Murder of Woes’

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HEALTHY EXPECTATIONS IN A RELATIONSHIP: LEARN WHAT TO EXPECT IN A RELATIONSHIP – AND WHAT TO FORGET

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Trust Building

We Have to Talk: A Step-By-Step Checklist for Difficult Conversations

What Makes a Guy Creepy? 24 Signs & Types of Men Girls Should Avoid

Women share their best tactics for scaring away 'creepy' men in public


Unlike many misanthropes, though, Wednesday is still somewhat motivated by social emotions like guilt and shame. They're just personally focused more than communally focused, and not always with the usual triggers or interpretations. Where other people feel uncomfortable if they fail to meet society's standards, Wednesday feels uncomfortable if she fails to meet her own standards. This helps explain actions that otherwise seem to conflict with her cold and indifferent personality.
For instance, visiting Eugene Ottinger in the hospital after the monster attacks him isn't something she would normally do. But she thinks of Eugene as a little brother, and she feels significantly responsible for his injury because she went to a social event instead of monster-hunting with him. Failing to protect him makes her feel bad.
Taking an arrow for Xavier Thorpe in Episode 8 is surprising because Wednesday doesn't even particularly like him. After mistakenly accusing him and setting him up to get arrested in Episode 7, though, she feels bad not so much about harming him as about being wrong. That creates an uncomfortable imbalance in the relationship. So protecting him fixes that imbalance.
Wednesday doesn't care much about what other people think, but she cares a lot about being right and being competent, so if others see her as being wrong and inept, that does bother her. She's also very territorial, about people as well as places or things. Those factors influence how she treats others.

Morticia Addams: That boy's family was going to file attempted murder charges. How would that have looked on your record?
Wednesday Addams: Terrible. Everyone would know I failed to get the job done.
This quote comes from a TV series ‘Wednesday’. The scene where this moment comes from is from Season 1 Episode 1, with the title of ‘Wednesday’s Child Is Full of Woe’

Wednesday Addams: I want to assure you that I remain just as cold and heartless as the first day we met.
Dr. Valerie Kinbott: I doubt a cold, heartless person. would be sitting by her friend's bedside. feeling some modicum of guilt for his condition.
-- Best Wednesday Quotes

"For someone who claims to have no friends you certainly go out of your way to protect them."
-- Principal Weems

"There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being proven right."
-- Wednesday Addams

3 Ways to Be More Thoughtful

How To Deal With Inconsiderate People

How to Not Care What People Think, According to 23 Experts

The Importance of Competence

Learn How To Stop Being Mean Unintentionally

Sometimes you have to choose between being right and being effective

Why Shame and Guilt Are Functional For Mental Health

Comments

[see_also_friend]

>>...to breaking into Xavier Thorpe's art shed.<<

This seems to be common knowledge to artists and uncommon among almost everyone else: Do not go poking around an artist's works unless/until they are ready to share their work. (Applies to sketchbooks, dance practice, private art studios, etc)

>>Unlike many misanthropes, though, Wednesday is still somewhat motivated by social emotions like guilt and shame. <<

It is possible for someone to chose misanthropy due to finding other humans annoying. Constantly being guilt-tripped or shamed would count, so in other words, some misanthropes may become misanthropic because of social emotion.

Alternately, some misanthropes may have normal-ish social needs, but find the offered socialization either does not meet their needs or makes things much worse.

>>She's also very territorial, about people as well as places or things. Those factors influence how she treats others.<<

Compare to old styles of lordship, feudalism, etc. The Lord may not care about an individual serf or an individual scrap of land, but will care about the insult offered when someone does not respect his sovereignty. Then we get a social system where the entire lord's household (or demesne, or whatever) collectively looks out for each other. Seems bizarre to modern post-WWII, but it does make a sort of sense.

And the Addams family are quite often written as an Old Blood, Old Money family, who are politely befuddled by all these 'quaint new customs.'