In The Turn of the Screw, why did Miles die?

"There lies the rub," as a famous quote from
Hamlet would put it. One of the reasons I personally find this
novella so compelling is the way that Henry James presents himself as the master of
ambiguity in his presentation of the account of the governess, and through the way that
we are never entirely sure if she is an unreliable narrator or not. Let us just remind
ourselves of the facts: the only person who ever sees the ghosts is the governess
herself, who is an impressionable female sent to an isolated mansion by an attractive
older man who she clearly is drawn to. Critics point out the Freudian nature of this
relationship and the potential desire of the governess to create a situation that would
cause her employer to visit.

Thus it is, that if we examine
the powerful ending of this story and in particular the supposed confrontation that the
governess and Miles have with Peter Quint, the account of the governess is cast into
doubt. Having "won" Miles and triumphed over the nefarious intentions of Peter Quint,
note how the governess describes the tragic ending:

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With the stroke of the loss I was so proud of he
uttered the cry of a creature hurled over an abyss, and the grasp with which I recovered
him might have been that of catching him in his fall. I caught him, yes, I held him--it
may be imagined with what a passion; but at the end of a minute I began to feel what it
truly was that I held. We were alone with the quiet day, and his little heart,
dispossessed, had
stopped.

Focus on the
strength and "passion" with which the governess "caught" Miles. It remains unclear
whether Miles died because his heart stopped because of the shock of the confrontation
with Peter Quint or the deranged governess suffocated him with the force of her embrace.
We are never given an answer.