In the play The Importance of Being Earnest dishonesty is very common, but is expressed in several kinds of literary elements, epigrams is one. Jack says "... it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he had been speaking nothing but the truth." (60). The humor in this is very clear because normally to find out you haven't been lying to everyone would be a good thing but Jack says it as if it is horrible to speak the truth. While there was several references to earnest and to Ernest. These are the same but different Ernest is the name of a character in the book but Earnest is part of the title of the play. "I mean it is naturally Ernest!" Now why make a play all about a man named Ernest only to spell it different for the title?
Wilde is trying to explain that little lies are fine because the wont change you or you loved ones like when Algernon and Jack claim to be a different person which then affects Gwendolen and Cecily. Oscar wanted the little lies to be shown as something small and little like when Algernon and Lane to Lady Bracknall about the sandwiches that's nothing not a big deal and it didn't hurt Lady Bracknall. He wanted to show that dishonesty is not always bad like it is thought out to be.
