While Wilde had long been famous for dialogue and his use of language , Raby ( 1988 ) argue that he achieved a unity and mastery in Earnest that was unmatched in his other plays , except perhaps Salomé . While his earlier comedies suffer from an unevenness resulting from the thematic clash between the trivial and the serious , Earnest achieve a pitch @-@ perfect style that allow these to dissolve . There are three different registers detectable in the play . The dandyish insouciance of Jack and Algernon — established early with Algernon 's exchange with his manservant — betray an underlying unity despite their differing attitudes . The formidable pronouncements of Lady Bracknell are as startling for her use of hyperbole and rhetorical extravagance as for her disconcerting opinions . In contrast , the speech of Dr. Chasuble and Miss Prism is distinguished by " pedantic precept " and " idiosyncratic diversion " . Furthermore , the play is full of epigrams and paradoxes . Max Beerbohm described it as littered with " chiselled apophthegms — witticisms unrelated to action or character " , of which he found half a dozen to be of the highest order .