Johan August Strindberg, was a Swedish novelist, playwright, essayist and painter. Since childhood, Strindberg had a massive interest in religion, natural science, and photography. As a child, he always longed for a maternal figure due to her mother's bitterness and resentment of his intelligence. Later, after the death of her mother, his father married again with Emilia Charlotta Pettersson. This grew anger in Strindberg.
Therefore, circumstance what caused Strindberg to cut off from his family was due to his father's remarriage after his mother's death.
In simple terms, scrubbing the stain only made it worse. Exacerbating means to make something worse than what it already is.
