"I hope that you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy." (Act 2 page 46).
The play makes it clear that people in the upper class society wear a social mask and pretend to be good whilst being wicked. In the play Wilde mocks the fact that in order to fulfil their role in society and satisfy their own needs, upper class people often had to live double lives. Honesty is supposed to be an important ideal in society which is trivialised in the play as Jack and Algernon were willing to lie to get what they want.
Earnest as a noun means part payment made in advance to confirm a contract. The name is central to the plot regarding marriage to women with money and status. Marriage is at the centre of the plot and Oscar Wilde frequently mocks this institution. Wilde trivialises the idea of marriage being a sacrosanct institution. At the beginning of the play Algernon and Lane have a light hearted discussion about marriage and champagne. Lane explains that "he has often observed that in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand." (Act 1 p6) Algernon asks, "Is marriage so demoralising as that?" (Act 1 p6 ) Lane goes on to explain that he had been married before, but it had been the result of a misunderstanding between himself and a "young person". This repartee sets the comic tone of the play and Algernon comments at the end of this that Lane's views on marriage are "lax", and implies that the "lower orders" should set a better example to the upper classes. In upper class homes it would have been expected that a high moral tone would have been transmitted from masters to their servants and not the reverse as Algernon suggests should be the case. The implication is that the upper classes, whilst pretending to be civilised have no moral values.
When Jack announces that he has come up to town to propose to Gwendolen, Algernon mocks the institution of marriage with his light hearted response.