Cathy and Hareton benefit in more than one way from the effects of Catherine's death on Heathcliff. Patsy Stoneman makes a crucial connection between Heathcliff's love for Catherine, his death, and Cathy and hareton in her article:
After twenty years of comtemplating 'one object, and one form', Heathcliff confesses to Nelly that he has lost motivation for his revenge against young Catherine and Hareton (pp. 392-3); in the next chapter he is dead. The crucial scene is in the penultimate chapter, when Heathcliff comes in upon Hareton and young Catherine reading together. 'They lifted their eyes together . . . their eyes are precisely similar, and they are those of Catherine Earnshaw' (p. 392). . . . Their resemblance to his Catherine merely confirmed his outraged sense of loss[.] (532)
Most readers quickly find it obvious that Catherin is the reason that Heathcliff has a desire to die. This quote, however, makes it clear that Catherine is also the reason that Heathcliff is able to release his obsession with revenge and make himself die. When he sees Catherine's eyes in Cathy and Heathcliff, he is reminded of his love for her and decides that his desire to be reunited with her surpasses his desire for revenge. Although in the ideal situation (or at least as ideal as one could imagine in this particular story), Heathcliff would have come to this realization twenty years earlier, it's easy to see that his death is certainly advantageous in the lives of Cathy and Hareton. With Heathcliff gone, they lose the corrosive influence of Heathcliff's temperament and gain both the Heights and the Grange. So, although the effects were much to long in coming, Cathy and Hareton certainly benefited indirectly by the death of the first Catherine.
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