In The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde uses irony, puns, and humor to show the readers of the follies and social incapability of the acceptance of others different from themselves. .
Wilde's wit makes itself quite apparent through puns and irony. In the first few chapters Wilde introduces a two characters of extreme importance, Jack and Algernon. Some time after Wilde introduces them the plot thickens as we realize that they both have alternate identities. Algernon's is Bunbury and Jack's is Ernest. Ernest (Jack) falls in love with Algernon's cousin Gwendolen, who is the daughter of Lord and Lady Bracknell. Ernest (Jack) tells Gwendolen about his true feelings, and she tells him that she cannot help but love someone by the name of Ernest and that she would never think of marrying anyone by any other name. (This is just showing how fickle some people can be, to marry someone just because you dreamed of marrying someone with their name.) This also produces a problem due to the fact that Ernest's real name is Jack. .
Later on in Act two something similar happens to Algernon and Jack's ward Cecily, where Algernon pretends to be Ernest Worthing, Jack's alter ego in the town and his "greedy wicked brother who live in town" when he is in the country. The plays and mostly revolves around this theme of deception to oneself and to others. Running throughout the entire play is the double meaning behind the word earnest, which functions both as a their name and in the grammar sense. This is shown as the men in the story trying to make themselves believe they are earnest and others believe they are "Ernest." I believe Wilde like to touch upon the topic of being someone else. For his whole life he was pretending to be someone else. Since he lived in Victorian England being gay was not only a sin but a crime as well. He pretended to be straight his whole life when in fact he was gay.