Read this herman melville excerpt from "introduction to dark romanticism: american gothic."

hither, and thither, on high, glided the snow-white wings of small, unspeckled birds; these were the gentle thoughts of the feminine air; but to and fro in the deeps, far down in the bottomless blue, rushed mighty leviathans, sword-fish, and sharks; and these were the strong, troubled, murderous thinkings of the masculine sea.
what dark romantic theme is reflected in the excerpt?
a. reverence for the natural world
b. gender differences
c. destructive forces of nature
d. power of the ocean