Ernest

The comment Wilde makes in The Importance of Being Ernest about society's ridiculous concern with the trivial as opposed to the serious applies heavily to today's society--at least the one in Alpharetta. Lady Bracknell makes it abundantly clear that appearances are all that truly matter. The size, glamor and esteem of the location of residence, the extravagance of an idea, the romanticism of an occupation, and the simple nature of a name.
Wilde writes a story in which two women fall in love with two men primarily because of these men's perceived name of Ernest. The absurdity of such importance given to such an unimportant matter speaks volumes about the very real priorities of the time period. The name "Ernest" just sounds so romantic and rich and powerful that it doesn't actually matter if the man with the name is rich and romantic and powerful. The perception of how the life of a man with that name should be becomes reality for Gwendolyn and Cecile. That these two can live in their own fantasy worlds further illustrates the superficiality of Wilde's society. Everything is romanticized and made more magnificent than it is, so you've got a bunch of rich trollops running around in a made up world, ignoring the chaos and order of the real world and thus creating an entire class of ostentatiously useless people.
That's like these spoiled Alpharetta families who run around with their noses so high in the air they're almost looking backwards. The way a person dresses tells one everything she needs to know about that person's value. The car a person drives tells one everything she needs to know about what that person values. It's funny and disheartening that the ludicrous, pathetic, and useless society of the upperclass that dwelled in Wilde's time closely resembles the society in which I find myself trapped. Oh god if I hear another person drone on about online shopping I'll punch holes in places that don't need holes.
.....Is essentially what Wilde was saying, from a strictly literary point of view.