But the fact that Catherine is still drawn to Heathcliff indicates that this apparent veneer of civilization is not 'real' and merely a surface manifestation of finery, not evidence of Cathy's real nature. Catherine lives in a state of internal exile: her soul is at odds with how she is expected to behave, as an upper-class woman and as a wife. Perhaps the most extreme statement of Catherine's sense of internal exile is her desire to be with Heathcliff rather than in heaven. This statement foreshadows her early death and her haunting of Heathcliff as a tormented spirit. Even though she is 'supposed' to be happy in heaven (and a happy wife and mother when married to a rich man), Catherine is only happy in the presence of a man who satisfies her passion. She feels a sense of alienation, no matter what her location, except when she is with her beloved. Yet she also confesses to Nelly Dean that she wants to marry Edgar because Edgar is wealthy and has a highly esteemed name. Catherine's desire to dominate others leads her to marry a man that will give her social status, but her decision to do so brings her nothing but misery and shame, and nearly destroys the happiness not just of her husband and her lover, but also the subsequent generation.

Heathcliff's rejection by Catherine Earnshaw makes him bitter and resentful. Even after he has come to possess his childhood...

He conspires to marry Linton's sister Isabella, and to make her life a living hell. The child Heathcliff has with Isabella, a sickly boy named Linton, symbolizes the sickliness of Heathcliff's feelings towards the Lintons, and he turns his rage and anger against the world against the next generation of Lintons and Earnshaws. He forces Catherine Earnshaw's daughter and namesake to marry Linton, and after Linton dies, Linton's property is passed onto Heathcliff. By controlling his older, dead adopted brother's estate and his brother's child Hareton, by the end of the novel Heathcliff has full control over the wealth of everyone who ever slighted him, or tried to get in the way of his passion for Catherine.
Yet the end of the novel ends with a cleansing death: Heathcliff and the original Catherine are united, not in heaven (or hell) but on the moors where they eternally wander as ghosts. Hareton, who has been reduced to a brutish state by Heathcliff, is to marry the second Catherine. The estates are now from Heathcliff's control and unite the formerly warring families. The exiles have been brought into ownership of the land on a literal, legal level, through marriage, but also on a symbolic level through the uniting of a new Catherine and Hareton.