The short story under analysis is entitled The Verger and written by W. Somerset Maugham. The author tells us about a man named Albert Foreman who has been verger of his church for sixteen years and he has done his job well. A new vicar appears and finds out that the verger can neither read nor write. He thinks that it can be inappropriate and dangerous for the church, so he makes the verger to leave his duty. Foreman does not know what to do and accidentally becomes a shopkeeper. He succeeds and earns a lot of money. A banker wants him to invest this money and asks to sign some papers. Foreman admits that he is not able to read them. The banker is astonished. He wonders what kind of success Foreman could have achieved if he were educated. Foreman answers that he would be verger of his church.

The atmosphere of the story is ironical. First of all, the irony lies in the fact that it took 16 years of Foreman's service as verger for people to understand that he does not fit. Of course, the vicar just came there, but he was ignorant and didn not take into account that Foreman had been working all this years without any accident. But they could not afford a scandal in a church like St. Peter's, it was clear for Foreman. Yet, he stubbornly refused to learn reading and writing to maintain his position (using a metaphor "too old a dog to learn new tricks"). Instead, he suddenly became a businessman.

This is the next case of irony. It is hardly possible for most of people to find a prospective job so easily. But Foreman was observant (we can see this trait of his when he sees two churchwardens). Walking along the streets he made a conclusion other people could not possibly make. He followed the same pattern to open all his shops never changing anything. It is ironical that he made his fortune in such a simple way when other businessmen struggle to keep their business alive.

After being fired Foreman walks along the streets deep in his thoughts. He remembers how he dreamt about the pleasant words the vicar would say in his sermon after his death. He was supposed to be a verger for life. But these thoughts no longer occupy his mind when he finds out there is no shop where he can buy cigarettes. He starts thinking as a businessman.

The peak of the irony in this story we can observe in the last sentence. Foreman's answer is ironic because the banker expected him to be a greater businessman if he were educated, but Foreman knew that he would still be a verger at his church, because in this case he would never been forced to leave. That’s paradox.

It is interesting how Maugham uses one and the same phrase at the beginning of the story and at its end. The vicar says that Foreman's inability to write and read is "a most extraordinary circumstance" that came to his knowledge. At the end of the story it turns out that "the most extraordinary" thing is that being unable to write and read Foreman has been able to make a fortune out of almost nowhere.

There is also an antithesis between the verger's grammar and pronunciation and his position. He illeterate, but he manages to achieve so much, because he has worldly-wisdom. One more antithesis is mostly implied. The author opposes Foreman to those who waste their time reading instead of doing something useful. We know this type of people from literature: Hamlet was well-educated, he talked a lot, but he never succeeded.

This story teaches us that education is not everything and people can become successful even without knowing how to write and read if they are stubborn enough and have a little power of observation. Moreover, from the story we find out that something that might be at first considered as a big loss can turn out as a big luck.