Weyler and cannibalistic love + cannibalism cartoons by Charles Addams
\"you have the look of a predator\"
Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (Act 1, Scene 5):
Cleopatra: now I feed myself with most delicious poison
(Cleopatra imagines herself feeding on Antony's love as though ingesting a poison-delicacy)
---
Among other things I love about Wednesday and Tyler's dynamic is how they capture the type of romance you see in the original Addams cartoons and Shakespeare's tragedies and comedies. And the possibility of cannibalism--figuratively speaking. Cannibalism is part of the Addams DNA. Aside from the killings, it's the consumption of human flesh (or at least the suggestion of it) that really set the original cartoons apart in their heyday.
With Weyler's dynamic, I get the impression of something cannibalistic brewing and bubbling. There's that feeling of cute aggression, as if it's saying, "If I could, I would eat you." I don't think Tyler and Wednesday would ever literally eat each other's flesh, but I do see their story as slowly building toward a love that turns cannibalistic in a metaphorical, very Shakespearean sense. An all-consuming love that devours each other's otherness and rearranges who they are. A desire that blurs the senses like poison in Antony and Cleopatra, and mutual destruction through consuming love like Romeo and Juliet. And what makes it work as a story is how it remains Gothic and Addams-esque.
"These violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume."--Romeo and Juliet
---
"Cannibalism" cartoons by Charles Addams:
"Cannibals still exist and are a fact of life."-Charles Addams
---
Addams cartoon inspired by Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra:
Posted Jun 17, 2026, 10:56 AM UTC