the text. [ 81 ] Ransome argues that Wilde freed himself by abandoning the melodrama, the basic structure which underlies 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. [ 82 ] The genre of the Importance of Being Earnest has been deeply debated by scholars and critics alike who have placed the play within a wide variety of genres ranging from parody to satire. In his critique of Wilde, Foster argues that the play creates a world where “real values are inverted [and], reason and unreason are interchanged”. [ 83 ] Similarly, Wilde’s use of dialogue mocks the upper classes of Victorian England lending the play a satirical tone. [ 84 ] Reinhart further stipulates that the use of farcical humor to mock the upper classes “merits the play both as satire and as drama”. [ 85 ] Wilde's two final comedies, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest , were still on stage in London at the time of his prosecution, and they were soon closed as the details of his case became public. After two years in prison with hard labour, Wilde went into exile in Paris, sick and depressed, his reputation destroyed in England. In 1898, when no-one else would,