All 3 Uses

earnest
in
How to Read Literature Like a Professor
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You could, I suppose, try being really, really earnest, portraying the characters as very serious and sober, making them noble by virtue of their goodness.†
Chpt 9 *

earnest = sincere or serious
And two or three times I've had a recent student in said substance abuse classes show up at discussions of "Sonny's Blues," very earnestly saying something like, "You should never give alcohol to a recovering addict."†
Chpt 25

earnestly = sincerely or seriously
When Oscar Wilde has one character in The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) say of another, recently widowed, that "her hair has gone quite gold from grief," the statement works because our expectation is that stress turns people's hair white.†
Chpt 26

earnest = sincere or serious

Definitions:

(1) (earnest)
characterized by sincere belief

or:

intensely or excessively serious or determined
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
Earnest can also be used as a name (variant spelling of Ernest), or to signify the seriousness of a pledge made (as when earnest money is included with an offer to purchase a home).