The Importance of Not Being Earnest

I've been listening to Terence Rattigan's The Browning Version because I want to write a more contemporary play about a failed teacher about to retire.  It's very interesting to me that the word I finally saw an apt description of me is one Crocker-Harris uses to describe himself:  Earnest.  Of course, this earnest man, while recognizing that he is not liked, is really stunned to hear that he's descried as "the Himmler of the Lower Fifth."