Read the excerpt from act i of the importance of being earnest. jack. my dear algy, you talk exactly as if you were a dentist. it is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isn’t a dentist. it produces a false impression. the main effect of the pun in the excerpt is that it confuses the reader. creates a funny moment. creates a serious moment. explains something to the reader.

The right answer is that it creates a funny moment. This excerpt is part of a humorous dialogue between Jack and Algernon. Algernon wants to know why Jack's cigarette case bears the inscription "From little Cecily with her fondest love," since Jack wants to marry Algernon's cousin Gwendolen. At first Jack denies knowing anybody with that name. He then says she is his aunt, but Algernon does not believe him, since, as he reveals, the full inscription reads "From little Cecily with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack." If she is his aunt, why does she call him uncle? And why does she call him Jack, if Algernon has always known him as Ernest? Jack replies that he has two names, one for the city and for the countryside, but, since he does not explain why his "small aunt" calls him "dear uncle," Algernon finally says: "Come on, old boy, you had much better have the thing out at once." This comment reminds Jack of the way a dentist would address a patient, hence his witty reply.  

the first proposition is to question economic materialism and victorian christianity. the lines are:

“it moves us not.—great god! i'd rather be

a pagan suckled in a creed outworn; ”

wordsworth is stating that nature no longer interests mankind, that the latter is not “moved” by it and explains that ancient western paganism had a more positive attitude concerning nature since it lacked the perv erted judaeo-christian interpretation of having received the world and all its animals and elements from god to use as we , instead of humans actually being not only part of nature but its wardens, meant to appreciate it and protect it.

the next lines are:

“so might i, standing on this pleasant lea,

have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

have sight of proteus coming from the sea;

or hear old triton blow his wreathed horn.”

wordsworth here make it very clear that by actually looking and contemplating nature, human beings would reconnect with happiness, serenity and purpose. the use of mythological figures is quite evocative as well, proteus is a greek mythological god of the changing sea. he personifies the sea that changes, which symbolizes the way nature changes and inevitably can change to be destructive not only due to natural causes but to human pollution. furthermore, the sea is even more symbolic since all life originated in the sea so it is not only our past but our future since no life form in our planet can survive without water and if all water is destroyed in earth all life will be gone as well.

he then uses triton which is symbolic of the synthesis of both nature and mankind. triton is a mythological greek god that has the upper body of a man and the lower body of a fish (a merman). this human fish duality evokes the fact that humans are not only human but also part of nature, the fish tail representing nature. the main attribute of this god was that he used a conch shell as a horn to calm the roaring seas. in other words, triton uses nature through science for the benefit of human sailors who risk death during tempests. with the use of such metaphor, wordworth is conveying the message that human technology   is supposed to use nature to preserve nature and thereby humanity as well.