# What happens to the second generation?

> Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

## Answer

Young Catherine Linton, Linton Heathcliff, and Hareton Earnshaw inherit the war. Heathcliff uses Linton to seize Thrushcross Grange and punishes Hareton into ignorance as a mirror of his own youth. Cathy is forced into a miserable marriage, then widowed into Heathcliff’s household.

The late chapters shift. After Heathcliff’s death, Cathy teaches Hareton and their bond softens the Heights. Lockwood finds a quieter scene than the one he first misread. Brontë allows repair without pretending the first generation’s passion was a model. Revenge-cycles end not by converting Heathcliff but by outliving him.

## Evidence

- [xxi](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/wuthering_heights_se/chapters/xxi.md): Heathcliff’s designs on the younger Cathy and Linton take shape.
- [xxxii](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/wuthering_heights_se/chapters/xxxii.md): Lockwood returns to find Cathy and Hareton changed.
- [xxxiv](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/wuthering_heights_se/chapters/xxxiv.md): Heathcliff dies; the household’s violence finally eases.

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