“The Importance of Being Earnest” By Oscar Wilde. In “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Oscar Wilde pairs characters and he also splits his characters into two contrasting groups. Explain how he does this and why. “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a play of childlike innocence and nonsense. In order to present this to the audience Wilde had to be simple, and therefore, he uses seven main characters in the play, which he simply pairs and contrasts. Wilde pairs characters through their values, ‘ideals’ and relation. However, opposi