Rank imagery
There are all sorts of references to rank in this book, but the one that becomes instrumental to the plot is the way that Mme. de Rosemonde, as the hostess and the eldest person present, is always last to exit a room. If Valmont takes her arm, which is an endearing gesture of friendship, support, and respect to the matriarch of his family, he will have an opportunity to pick up a dropped key.
Key imagery
Keys appear throughout the manuscript as expressions of trust. The Marquise, for example, gives her lover a key to a villa she owns, although she has another one if she decides to go there herself to stay. Cécile has the key to her own writing desk, so that she can lock up her own letters, although after her flirtation with Danceny is discovered her mother demands the key back and takes the letters. Valmont's plot to steal a key to Cécile's room is instrumental in the young woman's social downfall. He also takes advantage of a key left in a doorknob by the maid to raid Mme. de Tourval's correspondence to find out who is informing her of his own bad reputation and scandalous behavior.
Religious imagery
Most of the religious imagery in this novel has been co-opted into the language of love, which ironically is mostly of an illicit and adulterous form. Valmont makes reference to a "God of Love",
The Marquise acknowledges religious authority, but only as a form of oppression to be overthrown. She recommends that Valmont, and others, overcome "the love of God" in order to lose their fear of the Devil, or of divine retribution for their acts. Later, when Valmont decides to seduce Mme. de Tourvel, he expresses an intention to "snatch her from the God she adores", in order to make her adore him instead as a form of idolatry. It is not enough, for Valmont, to corrupt the happily married, loyal, and religiously conservative Mme. de Tourvel into betraying her husband and sinning by committing adultery: he wants to destroy her faith and her religious sentiment also. He succeeds in doing this, eventually, but not before his act of charitable generosity inspires the recipient family to fall to their knees at his feet as though they were looking at an "image of God". This sincere devotion causes genuine emotion in Valmont, and begins a gradual change in him that leads to him falling in love with Mme. de Tourvel despite his intention to destroy her.
The truly religious characters, such as the Volanges women and Mme. de Tourvel, do write about God as an absolver of sin or a source of strength.
Blood imagery
There are two ways blood behaves in this story: as a reference to family or genealogy, and as an actual bodily fluid.
"Blood" is a way of talking about a family line. Mme. de Volanges and the Marquise discuss Danceny's blood and heritage in the context of wealth and his suitability as a husband for Cécile. The notion is that a person's family connections can confer qualities of character, or at least socioeconomic expectations. Cécile's wealth, while impressive, may not be enough to support a Danceny household given the current aristocratic necessity of conspicuous consumption.
Valmont provides most of the literal blood in the book. He feigns a nosebleed to get Mme. de Tourvel out of the room so that he can examine her confidential papers, but it is an ironic foreshadowing. In his duel with Danceny at the end of the novel, Valmont receives stab wounds from a sword and literally bleeds to death. Some of the stab wounds are potentially self-inflicted, not necessarily meaning that Valmont literally stabbed himself, but he did cause his death by deliberately creating the circumstances leading up to the duel. One of his other victims, Mme. de Tourvel, becomes sick of a fever complicated by her guilt, shame, and disappointment at having betrayed her husband only to be duped by Valmont. As part of her treatment the doctors attempt to "bleed" her by removing blood to fight an infection. This medical treatment does not help her, and she eventually dies.
