All 5 Uses of

positive

in

The Scarlet Letter

No aim that I have ever cherished would they recognise as laudable; no success of mine—if my life, beyond its domestic scope, had ever been brightened by success—would they deem otherwise than worthless, if not positively disgraceful.
p. 13.8

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations, that made her mother tremble, because they had so much the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue.
p. 65.3

"He did not send me!" cried she, positively.
p. 68.0

positively = with certainty

To Hester's eye, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale exhibited no symptom of positive and vivacious suffering, except that, as little Pearl had remarked, he kept his hand over his heart.
p. 127.9 *

positive = certain

All his strength and energy—all his vital and intellectual force—seemed at once to desert him, insomuch that he positively withered up, shrivelled away and almost vanished from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun.
p. 172.4

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

Definitions:

(1) (positive as in: I'm absolutely positive!)
certain (having no doubt; or used for emphasis)
(2) (positive as in: had a positive effect)
good or beneficial
(3) (positive as in: positive feedback from my boss)
approval or agreement
(4) (positive as in: a positive attitude)
optimistic (expecting or focusing good things); or agreeable
(5) (positive as in: The test came back positive.)
found a condition or substance to be present
(6) (positive as in: a positive number)
greater than zero (of a number)
(7) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
See a comprehensive dictionary for less common meanings of positive including some in the fields of electricity, physics, chemistry, medicine, philosophy, and grammar. Note that most all senses of positive indicate that something is good or present.