The Verger is a short story written by William Somerset Maugham. The poem was written in 1937 and it was originally published in 1992. The Verger is a position of a person who take care of church. The main theme of the poem is appearance and opportunity.
The Verger By Somerset Maugham Summary
Summary of The Verger By Somerset Maugham
William Somerset’s “The Verger” story begins with Saint Peter Church which is near to Neville Square. There works one verger named, Albert Edward Foreman, a man who is proud of his work and does his work with full dedication and hard work. He is satisfied with his job and also take care of his uniform.
Albert is working as a verger in Saint Peter Church since last 16 years. He has spend a long period of his life by working as a verger. In 16 years, Albert received many Gaons and have not throw any of his goans till now. He is very attached to his goans and keep all his old gaons in lower box of Almirah.
It is an afternoon time and a child is being christened. The child’s christened has just ended and everyone including verger is doing their work. There comes new Vicar who comes to Albert and look if he is doing his work properly or not.
The Albert does not like new Vicar of church as he feels he disturb people for no reason. There were many Vicar in this church before this new Vicar who knew about Albert that he does his work with integrity and honesty.
The new Vicar is in his mid forties and very interfering person. He always disturb people while they work. Albert can’t say anything to Vicar because he is a head of church. As Albert complete his work, Vicar comes to him and ask him to go inside of church because he wants to talk with him. The Verger does not know what Vicar wants to talk with him, still he go inside with him to talk.
On the way, Albert says to Vicar that the way you kept child quiet was pretty impressive. The Vicar get happy on this and says I’m expert in my work. The Vicar said you don’t know that I can calm any child. As Albert and Vicar enters inside of church, Albert shocked to see other two warden sitting there. He is thinking what Vicar is wants to discuss with all of us.
Thereafter, Vicar says to Albert that he is shocked to learn something about him. He says Albert, you do your duty with honesty but you are illiterate so how do you manage the paperwork of church. Albert is shocked because someone is asking him this question after 16 years. Everyone knows that I can’t read or write but why are they asking this question to me after 16 years.
Albert says to his Vicar that everyone knows that he can’t read or write but no one had problem with it. Vicar says to Albert that this will not work anymore and if you want to keep working then I’m giving you three months to learn reading and writing and if you failed then I will fire you from your job. Albert in sadness says to Vicar that he can’t learn these things in 3 months.
Albert suggest to Vicar to hire someone else for his position because he is going to resign as learning in 3 months is not possible for him. Through the conversation between Albert and Vicar, we learn about the nature of Albert that he is a very nice person who does not get angry at anyone.
Albert believes that he is a talented person so he does not want to bow down in front of anyone. He believes that he is capable of doing other kinds of work. Albert is very sad and lost in his thoughts so he decides to smoke a cigarette. He took different way for home and starts thinking about his job like what is going to do now. After searching in all the way, he does not find any cigarette shop.
He is shocked to see that there is no tobacco shop. Afterwards, Albert reached home while thinking about his future plans. He decides that he will work in church for one month till they find a replacement for him. After that, he will open a tobacco shop on the street he was passed through yesterday.
As there was no tobacco shop on the street so he will open one there. After some time, Albert left his Verger’s job and opened his shop where he started selling tobacco and newspaper. His business worked well and he opened one more shop there within a year.
Albert started expanding his business slowly-slowly, he opened his shop on those street where there were no shops before. He was earning more money than his Verger job. One day, Albert went to bank to deposit his money, there bank manager ask Albert to invest money on their bank. Albert hesitate at first but bank manager was continuously forcing him to invest. He give Albert papers to read and sign but Albert does not sign as he can’t read the papers.
The Bank manager is impressed by Albert because he can’t read or write but still running a big business. He says to Albert if you were educated, you would have more successful. Albert replies If I was educated, I would still be working in a church.