going gothic assignment

• Review the Gothic Americans
• Looking Back . . .
• Who's Who?
• Style and Substance
• Reading Well
• The Gothic Americans Module Review
• Question Everything

Going Gothic

Use the knowledge and skills you've gained during this module to complete this project.

Film makers know a good story when they read one, and their next step is to imagine it on the big screen. Consider the many movies that have been made based on the literature you read in this module. The first film version of The Scarlet Letter was produced in 1926, and another movie titled The Scarlet Letter was released in 1934. Watch that film's opening scenes below.

The first two scenes in this film version do not appear in the novel. What is the purpose of these added scenes?

They help the audience understand how the Puritan legal system operated—particularly the role of public humiliation in punishments delivered to townspeople, even for minor "crimes" like gossiping and laughing on Sunday.

In 1979, the Public Broadcasting Service (you know them as PBS) produced a mini-series based on The Scarlet Letter , and in 1995 an R rated version of the novel was released. Each version of the story on screen took a slightly different approach to conveying the novel's darker themes. How might the story appear on film now, if a version were produced in the next couple of years? How would producers convey the elements typically associated with Gothic literature, using today's film language?

After completing this module, you should be something of an expert on the American Gothic period, and you should be very familiar with the three primary authors of the period and their works. For this project, you will imagine one of the works you read as a film, and you will describe in detail how the film might best convey its Gothic themes. You should make sure that your final product (a set of production notes) accomplishes these objectives:

As you work on this project, review the assignment requirements frequently so that you don't leave anything out. Study these steps carefully—they are based on the objectives above and contain more information about each of the requirements of the project.

After you have created your production notes, share them with a friend or family member, and ask them if they're able to imagine the film that you describe. If not, you need to add more details about your vision of the story on the big screen.

Your production notes will be evaluated according to the following rubric.

Gothic Literature - Study Guide

Nothing makes you feel more alive than getting a good scare by a horror story! Gothic Fiction has a long history, and remains popular to this day. We hope this guide is particularly useful for teachers and students to explore the genre and read some great stories.

Overview of Gothic Literature , Exemplary Works , Etymology & Historical Context , Quotes , Discussion Questions , Useful Links , and Notes/Teacher Comments

Overview of Gothic Literature

The genre of "Gothic Literature" emerged as the darkest form of Dark Romanticism in its extreme expressions of self-destruction and sin involving sheer terror, personal torment, graphic morbidity, madness, and the supernatural. Put simply, they are stories that scare the bejesus out of you! Edgar Allan Poe wrote some of the finest macabre tales in this genre. Other prominent authors of the genre include Mary Shelley , Bram Stoker , J. Sheridan Le Fanu , H.P. Lovecraft , Philip K. Dick , Algernon Blackwood , Guy de Maupassant , Amelia B. Edwards , M.R. James , Arthur Machen , Elizabeth Gaskell , W.W. Jacobs , W.F. Harvey , and Robert W. Chambers .

Exemplary Works

We offer an exceptional collection of macabre tales: The Gothic, Ghost, Horror & Weird Library

Best Halloween Stories

Both of the above pages offer summaries, the stories and author biographies, so you can find just the right kind of "scary" to suit your mood. See our section of Quotes to get a taste for some lesser known works of gothic fiction you may also enjoy.

Etymology & Historical Context

Originating in England and Germany in the later part of the 18th century, it grew out of Romanticism , a strong reaction against the Transcendental Movement . Dark Romanticism draws from darker elements of the human psyche, the evil side of spiritual truth. Gothic literature took that further, involving horror, terror, death, omens, the supernatural, and heroines in distress. The first recognized Gothic novel was Horace Walpole 's The Castle of Otranto (1764). In the nineteenth century, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu became a leading author of horror and ghost stories. His female lesbian dracula novel, Carmilla (1872), inspired Bram Stoker 's Dracula (1897).

Because of its superstitious elements, combining history with fiction, intellectuals of the Enlightenment were offended by Gothic literature's "fake" facts. Though some were convinced; reviews from Cambridge were that the book "made some of them cry a little, and all in general afraid to go to bed o' nights." Several authors helped legitimize the genre by imposing realism to give credibility to their fantastic supernatural elements (authors such as Ann Radcliffe and Clara Reeve , whom we do no feature here). Read H.P. Lovecraft 's fascinating book with chapters on the dawn of the horror tale, Poe, and weird traditions in America and the British Isles: Supernatural Horror in Literature .

What made American Gothic Fiction distinctive from European authors? Three words: Edgar Allan Poe . Poe owns the genre; the tragic events of his own lifetime helped him see and write about the world's worst evils. His curiosity with psychological trauma, the supernatural, and experience with mental illness extended a degree of horror that is unparalleled. As Poe wrote in The Tell-Tale Heart : " What you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses. " While other American authors, including Nathaniel Hawthorne ( The Prophetic Pictures ) and Washington Irving ( The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ), contributed to the genre of gothic fiction, nobody tops Edgar Allan Poe . Not even contemporary horror author, Stephen King , though his diabolical clown story movie remake, It is enjoying a successful resurgence to invigorate the genre once again.

The historical context of Gothic Literature has evolved with the prevailing social, political, and personal events of the authors and their times. Regardless of the context and setting, such as the Salem Witch Trials, the American Revolutionary War, the Vietnam War, the post-Zombie apocalypse, unrequited love (a timeless theme), works of Gothic literature utilize common elements that keep readers coming back for more. Though the genre has come in and out of popularity, authors throughout the ages continue to have an audience for their stories of terror, horror and mysteries of the supernatural.

Explain what the following quotes meaning and why they are exemplars of Gothic Literature:

"It was, indeed, an exquisite symbol beneath which men long ago veiled their knowledge of the most awful, most secret forces which lie at the heart of all things; forces before which the souls of men must wither and die and blacken, as their bodies blacken under the electric current." -- The Great God Pan (chapter 6), Arthur Machen

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!' -- The Raven , Edgar Allan Poe

"A shriek of terror, a wild unintelligible cry for help and mercy; burst from my lips as I flung myself against the door, and strove in vain to open it." -- The Phantom Coach , Amelia B. Edwards

"As the gate swung wider and the sorcery of the drug and the dream pushed me through, I knew that all sights and glories were at an end; for in that new realm was neither land nor sea, but only the white void of unpeopled and illimitable space. So, happier than I had ever dared hope to be, I dissolved again into that native infinity of crystal oblivion from which the daemon Life had called me for one brief and desolate hour.” -- Ex Oblivione , H.P. Lovecraft

"The fact that Henry Armstrong was buried did not seem to him to prove that he was dead; he had always been a hard man to convince. That he really was buried, the testimony of his senses compelled him to admit." -- One Summer Night , Ambrose Bierce

"I touched these human remains, which must have belonged to a giant. The uncommonly long fingers were attached by enormous tendons which still had pieces of skin hanging to them in places. This hand was terrible to see; it made one think of some savage vengeance." -- The Hand , Guy de Maupassant

"And terrible fishes to seize my flesh, Such as a living man might fear, And eat me while I am firm and fresh,-- Not wait till I've been dead for a year!" -- Burial , Edna St. Vincent Millay

"I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect--in terror. In this unnerved-in this pitiable condition--I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR." -- The Fall of the House of Usher , Edgar Allan Poe

"'The sin of witchcraft.' We read about it, we look on it from the outside; but we can hardly realize the terror it induced. Every impulsive or unaccustomed action, every little nervous affection, every ache or pain was noticed, not merely by those around the sufferer, but by the person himself, whoever he might be, that was acting, or being acted upon, in any but the most simple and ordinary manner." -- Lois the Witch , Elizabeth Gaskell

"I perceived myself outside my body-- saw my body near me, but certainly not containing me...I was a great cloud-- if I may express it that way-- anchored to my body. It appeared to me, at first, as if I had discovered a greater self of which the conscious being in my brain was only a little part." -- The Stolen Body , H.G. Wells

"A phantom haunts and hallows the marble tomb or grassy hillock where its material form was laid. Till purified from each stain of clay; till the passions of the living world are all forgotten; till it have less brotherhood with the wayfarers of earth, than with spirits that never wore mortality,—the ghost must linger round the grave. O, it is a long and dreary watch to some of us!" -- Graves and Goblins , Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine, Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine; His soul shall taste the sadness of her might, And be among her cloudy trophies hung." -- Ode on Melancholy , John Keats

The tombstone read: "He passed away very suddenly on August 20th, 190- 'In the midst of life we are in death.'" -- August Heat , W.F. Harvey

"Satan has his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred." -- Frankenstein (chapter 15) by Mary Shelley

Discussion Questions

1. Identify the characteristics of Gothic Literature and examples of work which fit the genre. Identify the different types of "scary" that qualify.

3. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman 's story, Luella Miller . It is about a female vampire who is a parasitic host, consuming her victims with her own dependency, helplessness, and fear. Explain whether you consider it an example of Feminist Literature , in addition to Goth Lit.

5. Identify a modern gothic literature author (e.g., Stephen King , Neil Gaiman , Tim Burton ). Provide examples of their work as evidence of their place in the genre.

6. Explain the use of foreshadowing and elements of suspense in The Monkey's Paw .

8. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is an allegory for something . Provide textual evidence to support your explanation of one of Stevenson 's moral lessons in the story.

9. What makes a good ghost story? Consider The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell , who conveys many gothic elements such as a sense that nature is gloomy and demonic, organ music coming out of nowhere, and the ghost of the dead master "wailed and triumphed just like a living creature." What's the moral of the story?

Useful Links

Supernatural Horror in Literature by H.P. Lovecraft

The Rise of Gothic Literature , an overview of its origins and many forms

Luella Miller: A Marxist Feminist Vampire Story

11th Grade Lesson Plan: Six Week Unit Study on Gothic Literature

9th Grade Lesson Plan: Intro to Gothic Literature Through Poe

7th Grade Lesson Plan: Foreshadowing and Morals in "The Monkey's Paw"

Teaching 'Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'

American Literature Lesson Plans: 19th Century , including Poe, Bierce, Dickinson, Hawthorne

Gods and Monsters: Mythical Creatures, Demons, Vampires, Zombies

'The Nurse's Story' by Elizabeth Gaskell Q&A

Review of 'Lois the Witch' by Elizabeth Gaskell , a great history lesson about the Salem Witch Trials

Modern Gothic vs. Traditional Gothic Literature

Dark Romanticism - Study Guide

Biography and Works by Edgar Allan Poe

Biography and Works by Mary Shelley

Biography and Works by Bram Stoker

Biography and Works by Robert W. Chambers

Biography and Works by H.P. Lovecraft

Biography and Works by Algernon Blackwood

Biography and Works by Amelia B. Edwards

Biography and Works by W.W. Jacobs

Notes/Teacher Comments

Visit our Teacher Resources , supporting literacy instruction across all grade levels

American Literature's Study Guides

Return to American Literature Home Page

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100 gothic fiction writing prompts

November 28, 2023 by Richard Leave a Comment

Here are 100 gothic fiction writing prompts that go bump in the night. Shadowy figures are lurking in crumbling mansions. Ominous family curses and disturbing secrets. Welcome to the macabre world of gothic fiction. With its atmospheric tales of horror and suspense, this haunting genre never seems to die.

And now, you can let your dark imagination run wild thanks to these 100 spine-tingling gothic fiction writing prompts. Inside, you’ll find story ideas involving haunted sanitariums, possessed dolls, vengeful spirits, bizarre experiments gone wrong, unsettling wax museums, and so much more.

Creative inspiration awaits on every chilling line, from creepy portraits and abandoned opera houses to agents of the occult and sinister doppelgangers. Not for the faint of heart, these prompts pull back the veil into spaces where the darkest dreams and nightmares dwell just out of sight.

Venture forth, if you dare. Let the ghosts and shadows guide your pen to weave deliciously dramatic tales to make readers shiver. Just be warned—once you immerse yourself in these macabre realms, you might never wish to return to the comforting glow of the light again. The spirits will eagerly await your next visit to their darkened domains.

• An old mansion hides disturbing secrets and supernatural forces in the attic that slowly take control of a new homeowner.
• A family curse causes a daughter to transform into a ghostly spirit every night, haunting the ancestral castle.
• Gargoyles and stone figures seem to move when no one is watching in an ancient monastery turned hotel.
• Mysterious scratching and cries can be heard within the walls of a creaky old plantation house at night.
• An innocent mother is accused of witchcraft in 1600s Salem and condemned to death for her occult “crimes.”
• A widow uncovers her dead husband’s strange double life after finding his hidden portrait stashed away in a forgotten attic.
• A mental patient believes a possessed doll talks to her at night, urging her to commit violent acts.
• Strange marks and blood keep appearing on a daughter after she becomes obsessed with communicating with spirits using an antique Ouija board.
• A decaying sanitarium still bears unsettling traces of its horrific and bizarre medical practices on abandoned patients.
• Villagers suffer violent sleepwalking fits that coincide with rumors of a vampire stalking the night.
• A daughter tries to figure out if she’s going insane or truly haunted by the vengeful ghost of her dead mother.
• A perilous staircase within an abbey spirals into unknown realms below.
• A pallid masked ball conjures macabre visions of the past that hint at an unsolved murder.
• A family becomes increasingly corrupted and haunted after moving into an ancestral home their new baby inherited.
• Dogs around a village go mad after a meteor crash, savaging their masters at night.
• Mysterious medicinal tinctures at an asylum seem to only make patients exhibit worsening fits of insanity.
• A gravedigger realizes the corpse he just buried seems oddly still sentient and desperate to escape.
• Villagers are plagued by a daemonic specter leaving behind inexplicable nocturnal phenomena like imprints of cloven hooves.
• An innocent girl is abducted into a convent as punishment for her mother’s sins but discovers the nuns secretly practice witchcraft at night.
• An accursed cask of Amontillado wine drives its victims murderously insane.
• A troubled widow uncovers her home’s accursed foundations are strangely shifting every night.
• A shadowy cabal seeks occult texts and artifacts for mysterious rituals from the catacombs below a corrupted monastery.
• In the candlelit rooms of an abandoned Gothic manse, ghosts endlessly recreate a tragedy.
• A prisoner is spirited away every night from his cell to a ghostly masked ball even as he awaits execution.
• Sinister medieval torture devices are revived to torment victims of an obsessive cryptic society within a dungeon.
• Glimpses of fatal visions in ornate mirrors drives the viewer slowly mad.
• An eccentric gentleman scientist conducts deranged experiments bringing corpses to life with disastrous consequences.
• A remote island filled with exotic flowers breeds an opiate-like scent that draws visitors only to never let them leave again.
• A silver bell that rings unexpectedly in the night signals another soon-to-be victim marked for death by a vengeful spirit.
• Eerie doppelgangers take the place of loved ones, deceiving everyone except one person who knows the truth.
• A crumbling gothic tower imprisoned artists driven mad trying to capture visions of a beautiful muse who tragically perished.
• An asylum patient speaks a dead language to mysterious entities living within the walls.
• Sinister satanic rituals take place in the catacombs below a remote monastery.
• An eccentric widow performs bizarre elaborate funerals for her dead pets left to wander restless on the grounds of her decaying estate.
• Terrible secrets fester behind the boarded up windows of a foreboding Gothic manse sinking into a swamp.
• A cursed ancient artifact causes a strange wasting plague to rapidly age victims until they become desiccated ghoulish remnants.
• Phantasmagoric illusions plague a masked ball, showing omens of tragedy within the mirrors.
• Witch hunters accuse women in a village of secret satanic pacts causing children to dance madly to macabre magical flutes only they seem to hear.
• A miserable masked carnival performer transforms into a real grotesque creature when offstage after being born malformed.
• An old wooden marionette begins subtly manipulating its puppeteer.
• Mysterious locked rooms once used for occult rituals drive the curious to obsessively seek ways to see inside.
• Winged vicious creatures stalk the elaborate stone halls of crumbling ancestral castle.
• Unmarked graves in family cemeteries disturbingly sink every year even after exhumation.
• A vampiric contagion spreads from rats boldly biting citizens in a shadowy slum.
• A wretched foundling child suffers violent fits and harbors a cruel second soul those in the workhouse strangely indulge.
• A portrait’s eyes seem to hauntingly follow you as if the spirit remains trapped within.
• An intricate puzzle box found in the ashes of an old burned down asylum proves maddeningly impossible yet sinister to solve.
• A masked stranger seems to mysteriously die multiple violent deaths before your eyes at the same masquerade ball over centuries.
• A sleep experiment induces ghastly nightmares that continue to haunt waking victims.
• A wax museum’s strikingly lifelike figures seem prone to subtly shifting when unobserved.
• Mourning paintings morph the dead’s faces into cadaverous skulls if stared at too long.
• Disturbing eerie echoes of macabre theater scenes continue to repeat within an abandoned Opera house attic even without players.
• A widower’s pained artistic attempts at revival seem to succeeding at resurrecting his deceased wife into an uncanny creature.
• A sentient schizophrenic house’s architecture keeps fantastically warping.
• A broken antique kaleidoscope filled with tainted bone fragments shows macabre visions of death to owners.
• An inhabitant of opiate dens seems to project their delirious dreams of a haunted palace.
• Gargoyles mysteriously take the place of landlords thought to be away on extended trips.
• Elaborate startling illusionist tricks at a theater inexplicably shift into real supernatural manifestations.
• An ornate hand mirror shows the viewer’s face aging rapidly or glimpses their own gruesome death behind their shoulder.
• Ghostly debutante dancers endlessly waltz together unable to stop until dawn breaks the spell binding them to the ballroom.
• A widow uncovers her husband’s secret obsession with building uncannily perfect wind up automata replacements of recently deceased townspeople.
• A physician teaches his unusual nervously sensitive ward to enter a trance to retreat from reality’s disturbing stimuli into the meticulously crafted rooms of a haunted mind palace.
• Corpses of the recently deceased are stolen from cemeteries before materializing days later woven into elaborately posed configurations on church pews.
• A troubled writer frequents the sprawling haunted ruins of an alchemist’s strange estate, inspiring her wildly imaginative yet disturbing stories seeming to manifest elements into reality the more she writes them.
• A masked stranger haunts the private theater box night after night to bizarrely mentor an actress until she embodies her dead lover reborn onstage.
• Ghostly echoes of macabre deaths plague a murderer forcing them toward the scene of their crimes for a reenactment on every anniversary.
• Eerie music box melodies woven from metal pins and blood guide the imaginative inside a labyrinthine mechanical puzzle house.
• A widow trapped in perpetual mourning painstakingly applies her dead daughter’s preserved face to lifelike doll effigies.
• Disturbing unseen presences seem to forcibly puppeteer vulnerable drug addicts into recreating bizarre depraved theater shows.
• An intricately decorated artifact using human bones and teeth seems to promise supernatural visions yet also extract sanity as payment.
• A troubled detective frequents the bizarrely maze-like halls of his inherited family estate which seems to ominously shift and transform to mirror his fractured mind.
• A strange idol causes bizarre uncanny doppelgangers to manifest when studying your mirrored reflection too closely by candlelight.
• An ominous ancient grandfather clock always seems to countdown toward the hour of a person’s eventual mysterious death.
• Eerie echoes from a deceased twin haunt a surviving sister while her parents seem obliviously content to pretend the deceased child never existed.
• A troubled magician able to manifest realistic illusions finds the appearances slowly becoming autonomous entities no longer under their control.
• A melancholy doll somehow houses the soul of a drowned child submerged from a past tragedy mysteriously able to animate itself.
• A comatose woman’s nightmares seem to cross over into waking reality the longer she remains unable to wake up.
• A grieving eccentric covertly captures apparitions on antique photographic plates by stealing close keepsakes from dead loved ones to haunt the images.
• A drug addict watches a doppelganger slowly take over their life leaving them behind like a forgotten hollow shell.
• An heiress who haunts a decaying mansion seems to enchant guests into staying longer each visit until they waste away becoming dusty relics imprisoned by her loneliness.
• Death masks crafted from wax conceal a bizarre way for the wealthy secretly achieve eternal life by encasing souls.
• An intricate puzzle box found in an asylum’s ashes proves disturbingly irresistible yet maddeningly impossible to solve.
• Faded unnerving portraits hide being them twisted decaying corpse faces revealed by candlelight.
• An artist’s miraculously revived daughter rapidly becomes a bizarre inhuman creature.
• A grieving mother uses bodies of the recently deceased as bizarre life size macabre doll replacements for her dead daughter.
• Unmarked patient graves in an asylum’s cemetery subtly sink deeper when no one watches.
• A haunted portrait’s subject seems to possess those who gaze upon their beauty for too long.
• An intricate anatomical theater hides disturbing occult ceremonies deep below.
• A twisted sculptures garden filled with contorted stone bodies seems to come alive at night.
• Ghostly debutante dancers haunt an abandoned dilapidated ballroom unable stop waltzing even as the room crumbles.
• A magician’s transformative stage illusions become an addiction yet irreversibly distorts their appearance when not on stage.
• A troubling ornate music box plays seemingly random eerie melodies that prove to sadly match the tune of imminent real life tragedies.
• A grief stricken eccentric attempts increasingly deranged experiments to revive dead loved ones.
• An intricate mechanical puzzle house ensnares victims inside its constantly shifting labyrinthine rooms and halls.
• A haunted asylum’s disturbing experimental therapies leave victims in an eternally childlike regressed state even after death.
• Unearthly cries emerge from the boarded up ruins of a decaying estate no one dares gets near at night.
• An intricate mosaic floor patterns itself from the powdered cremation ashes of deceased institute residents.
• Mourning paintings hauntingly transform to show the dead’s faces become cadaverous skulls if stared at too long.
• An intricate clockwork automatons that perfectly resemble the newly dead seem to creepily enact aspects of their former living behaviors.
• An intricate artful anatomy theater hides disturbing occult ceremonies deep below its secret trapdoors.

We hope you enjoyed this list of Gothic writing prompts. There are many other writing prompts on our site you may enjoy. If you have any questions or concerns please leave them in the comments below. Feel free to leave us any work you want to share that was inspired by these prompts. 

Related posts:

• 1000 Writing Prompts
• 10 Horrifying Horror Story Prompts
• 10 Even More Horrifying Horror Story Prompts
• 50 historical fiction writing prompts
• 365 Horrifying Horror Writing Prompts

About Richard

Richard Everywriter (pen name) has worked for literary magazines and literary websites for the last 25 years. He holds degrees in Writing, Journalism, Technology and Education. Richard has headed many writing workshops and courses, and he has taught writing and literature for the last 20 years.  

In writing and publishing he has worked with independent, small, medium and large publishers for years connecting publishers to authors. He has also worked as a journalist and editor in both magazine, newspaper and trade publications as well as in the medical publishing industry.   Follow him on Twitter, and check out our Submissions page .

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ATLANTA — Julio Teheran’s tribute video — ha, ha — if he returns to Citi Field with a team other than the Mets would consist of a single frame: a snapshot of the graphic showing a scoreless game after two innings in his Mets debut.

As it turns out, that debut may have also been his Mets finale, after the veteran right-hander was designated for assignment Tuesday by the club, which needed Teheran’s roster spot for bullpen insurance.

The team selected reliever Dedneil Nunez from Triple-A Syracuse.

Teheran arrived last week on a one-year contract worth $2.5 million that was non-guaranteed. He will receive a prorated portion of that amount.

If he isn’t claimed off waivers, he can elect free agency or accept a minor league assignment.

The Mets took a flyer on Teheran after Tylor Megill was placed on the injured list with a shoulder strain.

But after pitching two scoreless innings against the Braves on Monday, the right-hander never survived a third inning in which he allowed four earned runs.

That letdown forced manager Carlos Mendoza to utilize his bullpen earlier than he would have liked.

The Mets rallied for an 8-7 victory at Truist Park with reliever Reed Garrett providing a boost with 2 ¹/₃ scoreless innings.

Rather than option Garrett (who has been impressive in two multi-inning relief appearances for the Mets) team brass opted to unload Teheran.

“It’s one of those where it’s not an easy decision, especially with a guy like that with so much experience,” Mendoza said before the Mets faced the Braves again Tuesday night. “But it’s where we are at with the bullpen. We needed a fresh arm today, somebody who can provide length out of the pen and we ended up making that decision.”

It leaves the Mets with a rotation vacancy, but that spot in all likelihood will be filled by Jose Butto, who is eligible to be recalled from Triple-A Syracuse on Friday.

Mendoza acknowledged Butto is a strong candidate to receive Saturday’s start against the Royals after last week giving the Mets a strong outing as the extra player for a doubleheader against the Tigers.

The Mets are in a stretch of 15 scheduled games in 14 days and had originally considered this stretch as a potential point for inserting a sixth starter.

But the Mets’ lack of roster flexibility in addition to a diminished pool of options has all but scuttled the possibility of the team utilizing a sixth starter at this point.

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“I don’t know that we’re in a situation or a position right now where we can talk about a sixth starter,” Mendoza said. “We have got to get through this stretch where we have got to play so many games in a row, but we have got to go day by day.”

For now that includes the right-hander Garrett, who also pitched three shutout innings in the nightcap of Thursday’s doubleheader against the Tigers.

Overall, the right-hander has pitched 5 ¹/₃ scoreless innings from the bullpen with nine strikeouts.

“This is a guy that continues to provide quality innings, not only length but how well he’s throwing the ball,” Mendoza said. “He did it in a doubleheader the other day and [Monday] coming in early in the game and giving us a chance to stay there is important.”

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Eclipse day in North America.

By Daniel E. Slotnik

A shadow of wonder crossed North America

The first total solar eclipse in seven years plunged the day into darkness in Mexico, Canada and the U.S. yesterday, reminding millions of sky gazers of our planet’s place in the cosmos.

The celestial marvel carved a southwest-to-northeast path, delighting watchers behind eclipse glasses as the moon’s shadow grew until daylight was extinguished, except for the silvery glow of the corona.

But only if the weather held. For spectators in Canton, Texas, the clouds parted just in time . They stuck around too long for people riding the eclipse train in Western New York and returned to block the totality in Gander, Newfoundland, one of the last places the complete eclipse was visible. (Even if you missed it, we took plenty of pictures .)

I joined throngs of people in Manhattan’s Central Park to watch the partial eclipse. It felt like dusk by 3:20 in the afternoon, and people cheered when just a cuticle of sun remained.

Many Central Park spectators departed long before the sun fully emerged from behind the moon. People seemed more contemplative in other parts of the country, like Houlton, Maine, where the eclipse concluded the U.S. portion of its journey.

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He, like the rest of us, will probably have to wait. A total solar eclipse will not be visible again in the contiguous 48 U.S. states or Canada until 2044. But eclipse chasers can catch one as soon as 2026 in Greenland, Iceland or Spain.

The Vatican called gender fluidity a threat to dignity

The Vatican said in a document that the Roman Catholic Church believes gender fluidity and transition surgery amount to affronts to human dignity . The document also unequivocally states the church’s opposition to surrogacy and in vitro fertilization.

The sex assigned at birth is an “irrevocable gift” from God, the document argues, and “any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.”

The document, which was approved by Pope Francis, immediately generated deep consternation among advocates for L.G.B.T.Q. rights in the church, who fear that even though it warns against “unjust discrimination” toward transgender people, it will be used to target them.

Context: Francis, who has met with gay and transgender Catholics, has made a less judgmental church a hallmark of his papacy. But he has refused to budge on the church rules and doctrine that many gay and transgender Catholics feel have alienated them.

The Supreme Court was urged to reject Trump’s immunity claim

Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting Donald Trump on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, urged the Supreme Court to reject Trump’s argument that he is immune from prosecution for actions he took as president. Lower courts have so far rejected Trump’s claim.

The case, which Smith asked the court to address quickly, will be argued on April 25. If it takes a long time to resolve, Trump’s trial could be delayed until after the election, and if he wins the White House, he could order the Justice Department to drop the charges.

Related: An appeals court rejected Trump’s latest attempt to delay his Manhattan criminal trial, which is scheduled to begin on April 15.

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Ukraine: U.N. inspectors condemned drone strikes at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, saying that they “increase the risk of a major nuclear accident.”

Mozambique: Nearly 100 people died and more than a dozen were missing after an overcrowded boat sank off the country’s coast, the local authorities said.

Ecuador: Jorge Glas, the former Ecuadorean vice president who was arrested inside Mexico’s embassy in Quito, was found in a “self-induced coma” in jail after ingesting pharmaceuticals, the authorities said.

Diplomacy: Janet Yellen, the U.S. Treasury secretary, ended economic meetings in China without making any major breakthroughs .

Chips: The Biden administration will award up to $6.6 billion in grants to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which is building chip factories in the U.S.

Pollution: A new study of more than 45,000 water samples from around the world found harmful levels of PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals.”

Israel-Hamas War

Gaza: Active fighting in the enclave reached its lowest point since a brief truce in November, but both Israel and Hamas suggested that the war was not yet over.

Khan Younis: Some Palestinians found only devastation when they returned to their homes in the city in southern Gaza after Israeli troops withdrew.

U.S. Politics

Debt relief: President Biden announced an effort to help pay off federal student loans for tens of millions of Americans.

Abortion: Donald Trump said states should set their own laws on abortion , a stance that Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president and an evangelical Christian, called a “slap in the face .”

MORNING READ

Running gets much more difficult when the runner faces robbery, illness and men with machetes.

Russ Cook, a 27-year-old Englishman nicknamed the Hardest Geezer, faced those hardships and others after he set out last year to run the length of Africa. Despite all the challenges, Cook completed his more than 10,000-mile run on Sunday .

CONVERSATION STARTERS

‘3 Body’ problems: The Netflix series “3 Body Problem,” a major cultural export from China, is being pilloried on Chinese social media platforms .

Vanishing meteorites: Antarctica is known for its many meteorites, but thousands of them are sinking into the ice as temperatures rise .

Debunked: Yes, you can wash cast-iron pans. Here are four other big kitchen myths.

SPORTS NEWS

Manchester United 2, Liverpool 2: The main talking points from a classic at Old Trafford.

Champions League: Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each quarterfinalist.

Japanese Grand Prix takeaways: Williams’s woes and Red Bull’s status quo statement.

ARTS AND IDEAS

The ‘curb your enthusiasm’ finale.

After 24 years, Larry David’s HBO comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm” ended on Sunday . But where some see David’s character as the personification of selfish, antisocial behavior, the Times critic Wesley Morris sees a 21st-century Emily Post.

“‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ is about more than Larry’s probable narcissism,” Morris writes in an essay. “It’s a supreme comedy of manners.”

Read the rest of Morris’s piece here . You can also read our television critic on series finales that “ stick the landing ,” and test your “Curb” knowledge with this quiz .

RECOMMENDATIONS

Cooking: Make a quick white sauce from scratch for this stovetop mac and cheese .

Read: “ The Sleepwalkers ,” an experimental novel, is a gothic mystery about a honeymoon.

Exercise: Trick your brain to like running with these tips .

Bond: Make a friendship bracelet .

Play the Spelling Bee . And here are today’s Mini Crossword and Wordle . You can find all our puzzles here .

That’s it for today’s briefing. Thank you for spending part of your morning with us, and see you tomorrow. — Dan

You can reach Dan and the team at [email protected] .

Daniel E. Slotnik is a general assignment reporter on the Metro desk and a 2020 New York Times reporting fellow. More about Daniel E. Slotnik