She is typically portrayed as a morbid and emotionally reserved child that is fascinated by the macabre, often identified by her pale skin and black pigtails.

She seldom expresses her emotions, but is generally bitter, often sporting a withering stare, rarely breaking eye contact.

In the 1960s series, she is a far more sweet-natured child than the morose and spooky little girl of the original comics, serving as something of a foil to the more legitimately bizarre personas of her parents and brother; although her favorite hobby is raising spiders, she is also a ballerina.

In the animated series and Canadian TV series The New Addams Family from the 1990s, Wednesday's appearance is based upon that of the films and, (as with most later iterations of the character) she retains her more malevolent personality, love of torture, and fascination with the mad and macabre; she is portrayed as having her parents' consent to tie Pugsley to a chair and torture him with a branding iron and ice pick.

[3] In the 2019 animated version of the same title, Wednesday again retains her stoic nature and sadistic tendencies; trying to bury Pugsley, and tormenting a bully at school.

However, despite her gothic appearance and strange demeanour, she's also bored with her macabre and sheltered life; wanting to see the world despite Morticia's objections.

In the Netflix series Wednesday, the titular character dabbles in detective work and writes gothic mystery novels.

Once again, Wednesday retains the more stoic and malevolent attributes established in the original films of the 1990s, but is shown to be notably softer, and opens up over the course of the series, finding a best friend; the colorfully-clad werewolf Enid, becoming entangled in something of a love triangle, and displaying more overtly affectionate care for her brother, Pugsley.

Wednesday also shares a similar appearance to her distant ancestor, Goody Addams, who was a "witch of great strength" and had the same precognitive powers.

Beyond her aforementioned interests in writing and investigation, some of Wednesday's other hobbies in the series include playing the cello and, much as in the films; fencing.

However, the films further develop Wednesday's character, depicting her as a considerably more macabre and sinister individual than the comics had previously established.

All of this, of course, is played to comedic effect, with much of the humour of the character being derived from the sheer absurdity of such a young girl possessing so grave a demeanour, engaging in so many horrific and disturbing pursuits, and all while being arguably the most immoral member of an already considerably amoral family.

Consequently, much of Wednesday's personality, as established in the 1991 and 1993 films, has become so synonymous with the character that virtually every iteration since has subsequently been modelled on Ricci's depiction.

Here they meet Joel Glicker (played by David Krumholtz)—a neurotic, allergy-ridden wallflower camper with an overbearing mother— who quickly develops an infatuation with Wednesday.

However, despite their efforts to escape, Pugsley, Wednesday, and Joel are ultimately caught, locked in the "Harmony Hut", and forced to watch a seemingly endless progression of upbeat family films to reconditon them out of their antisocial behavior.

However, in the midst of a later conversation in which Joel attempts to discuss his feelings with her, and the possibility of a future romantic relationship between them, the tender moment (and the film) is abruptly ended when Wednesday quite literally scares him to death.

The whole family is mostly designed to resemble the initial cartoon depictions, with added details; for instance, Wednesday's hair braids end in nooses in the first film, and weights in the second.