The portrait of regular life
The most important imagery of the rising action is the inescapable mundane nature of daily life. Pascal desires something beyond the tight constraints of what he feels he is supposed to do, but in the meantime, his life is shaped by his conception of regular life. He has a job, which he hates, and a wife, that he barely knows and doesn't really care about, and he lives within a community of acquaintances and passersby.
The brutal imagery of death
The deaths of Pascal's two daughters are vicious reminders of life's ultimate trial, human death. The death of his mother raises the stakes of his own life drastically, and the depiction of his own hypothetically gruesome death is also disturbing. In his quest for meaning, this imagery sets the tone for his desperate relationship to time. He feels he is wasting his time, and the visual reminders of death haunt him.
Monte Carlo
He goes to Monte Carlo, which is a drastic change of scenery. In Monte Carlo, life is flamboyant, aesthetic, and entertaining. He is rapt, but only for a short time. In Monte Carlo, the casino life adds a new drama to his life. Can he win big in the games of chance? He learns that, yes, he can win in the casinos, and he can go to shows and be entertained, but does that make his life meaningful? Monte Carlo is big imagery with little reward for his quest, the domain of frustration.
Rome
Rome is offered as a backdrop for Pascal's reinvention. The old nature of the city and the history of empire are part of the imagery, and Pascal uses the imagery as a jumping off point to reinvent himself. But, nevertheless, the ancient problems of life still haunt him in the old city, and although he can make a façade, he cannot change his essence. His new identity is a sham that leaves him more lonely than ever, and Rome watches with sublime detachment, a city with the memory of countless humans on the same quest.
