What does Hawthorne mean when he calls the colony a utopia?

I forbindelse med Nathaniel Hawthornes roman "The Scarlet Letter", bruges udtrykket "utopia" ikke til nøjagtigt at beskrive den puritanske koloni i Massachusetts. The colony is far from a perfect society, and in fact, it is characterized by its strict religious laws, intolerance, and hypocrisy. Hawthorne did not call the colony a utopia and would not have used this term to describe the oppressive setting in which the story unfolds.