what is the significance of oscar wilde's use of wits and epigram in an ifeal husband

Oscar Wilde was all about witty paradoxes. Most of his characters entertain us with epigrams combined with melodrama. Consider Sir Robert when he says to Lady Chiltern, "All sins, except a sin against itself, Love should forgive. All lives, save loveless lives, true Love should pardon." Epigrams are what gives his plays the "edge" which they are so famous for. His epigrams play on words using clever rhetoric. He uses devices like irony, paradox and hyperbole to get different meanings out of a simple statement.