:You seem to miss the point. "William Hughes" is not a fictional character (he does not appear in the story at all) he is a postulated historical figure constructed by Thomas Tyrrwitt from reading the sonnets. Wilde explores this ideas of a postulated figure, and plays on the question of the realationship between historical reconstruction and wish-fulfilment. But the fact remains that Hughes has been postulated as  real, just as other figures referred to obliquely in lterature or under pseudonyms have been.