Ransome argue that Wilde freed himself by abandoning the melodrama , the basic structure which underlie his earlier social comedies , and basing the story entirely on the Earnest / Ernest verbal conceit . Now freed from " living up to any drama more serious than conversation " Wilde could now amuse himself to a fuller extent with quips , bons @-@ mots , epigrams and repartee that really had little to do with the business at hand .