Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli!

One way a creative writer might approach Melville's massive work would be to consider his inspirations. The book is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne, a fellow writer and Romantic. Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter had recently been published when the two authors formed their brief friendship. Melville named Ahab's ship The Pequod, after the Pequod Indians featured in The Scarlet Letter. In a letter to Hawthorne, Melville reveals a secret:

"Shall I send you a fin of the Whale by way of a specimen mouthful? The tail is not yet cooked--though the hell-fire in which the whole book is broiled might not unreasonably have cooked it all ere this. This is the book's motto (the secret one),--Ergo non baptiso te in nomine--but make out the rest yourself" (542).

The motto, the only line spoken in Latin by Captain Ahab in the course of the book as he brandishes a new harpoon, translates approximately into "I baptize thee not in the name of the Father, but in the name of the devil." To a creative writer, this line would stand out as immensely important (even without the secret knowledge that this is the book's motto) because of the singularity and abnormality of Ahab's one Latin phrase.

Another massive influence on Melville was Shakespeare, who he honors in "Midnight, Forecastle," a chapter which spontaneously breaks out in play form. Elsewhere, Shakespeare is referenced (Ahab has iambic habits of speech), but nowhere so directly. There is a slow build-up to the play in preceding chapters as three characters (Ahab, Starbuck, and Stubb) give soliloquies introduced by stage directions, for example the stage directions for the chapter "Sunset": "(The cabin; by the stern windows; Ahab sitting alone, and gazing out)" (142). The gradual descent into play form is mirrored by the characters' gradual descent into a drunken state of revelry. A creative writer would find this match of content and form very pleasing.