(60 points)

excerpt adapted from moby; or, the whale
by herman melville

one morning shortly after breakfast, ahab, as was his habit, ascended the cabin-gangway to the deck. there most sea-captains usually walk at that hour, as country gentlemen, after the same meal, take a few turns in the garden.
soon his steady, ivory stride was heard, as back and forth he paced his old rounds, upon planks so familiar to his tread, that they were all over dented, like geological stones, with the peculiar mark of his walk. did you fixedly gaze, too, upon that ribbed and dented brow, there also, you would see still stranger foot-prints—the foot-prints of his one unsleeping, ever-pacing thought—the whereabouts of the white whale.
but on the occasion in question, those dents looked deeper, even as his nervous step that morning left a deeper mark. and, so full of his thought was ahab, that at every uniform turn that he made, now at the main-mast and now at the helm, you could almost see that thought turn in him as he turned, and pace in him as he paced; so completely possessing him, indeed, that it all but seemed the inward mold of every outer movement.
"d'ye see him, flask? " whispered stubb; "the chick that's in him pecks the shell. 'twill soon be out."
the hours wore on. ahab now shut up within his cabin; then, pacing the deck, with the same intense single-mindedness of purpose in his aspect.
it drew near the close of day. suddenly he came to a halt by the bulwarks, and inserting his bone leg into the auger-hole there, and with one hand grasping a shroud, he ordered starbuck to send everybody aft.
"sir! " said the mate, astonished at an order seldom or never given on ship-board except in some extraordinary case.
"send everybody aft," repeated ahab. "mast-heads, there! come down! "
when the entire ship's company were assembled, and with curious and not wholly unapprehensive faces, were eyeing him, for he looked not unlike the weather horizon when a storm is coming up, ahab, after rapidly glancing over the bulwarks, and then darting his eyes among the crew, started from his standpoint. and as though not a soul were near him resumed his heavy turns upon the deck. with bent head and half-slouched hat he continued to pace, unmindful of the wondering whispering among the men.

in the second and third paragraphs, what do the "dents" on ahab's furrowed brow most likely symbolize?

a.
the reckless disregard that ahab has for nature and wild animals
b.
ahab's concern about the condition of his ship and crew
c.
ahab's lack of respect for the physical power of the whale
d.
the impact that ahab's struggle with the whale has had on him