Need help with the meaning of this sentence (usage of ようとしている）

Question

あいつは自分の嫁が決まってから、この呪縛を解除して自分の子供を産ませようとしてるんだ

When this kind of construction (ようとする）is used with things like てから or simple te form before it does it then mean that this applies to all of them or only the final verb?

If we split up the above sentence.

あいつは自分の嫁が決まってから- After he has chosen his wife

この呪縛を解除して- he will remove/lift/whatever the spell and then

We end with the final part of the sentence. I know and have seen the usage of ようとする many times before but when I think about this and I see it in the progressive like this I'm unsure (because he's obviously not trying to make them give birth to his child right this second because all the other steps haven't been completed anyway)

Can anyone clarify this?

Thanks.

Answer 1

As far as "pure" grammar, only the last verb phrase 「[自分]{じぶん}の[子供]{こども}を[産]{う}ませ」 modifies 「ようとしてるんだ」.

In meaning, however, 「あいつ」 does have a 3-step plan: 1) Get a wife. 2) Remove the spell. 3) And let her give birth to his child. In this sense, the guy is ようとしている all of the three things.

Thus, one could say that there are two correct answers, depending on what your focus is.

*Note that the subject of the mini-sentence 「[自分]{じぶん}の[嫁]{よめ}が[決]{き}まる」 is 「嫁」. I mention this because you translated it into "he has chosen his wife". While it is a valid translation, I just want to say that you cannot attach 「ようとする」 to 「自分の嫁が決まる」 even if you wanted to because 「自分の嫁が決まる」 is not an action (though "he has chosen his wife" is one). I mentioned all this just in case you were fooled by your own translation.