Septimus and Clarissa

I think this has been done before, but only briefly.  So, to expand:  Septimus and Clarissa.  Similar on multiple levels!
Someone else made the point that Septimus and Clarissa are both victims of trauma, Septimus due to the war and Clarissa due to... whatever.  I won't go further.  That's not the end of their similarities!  (And I can't believe no one has said anything like this yet.)  Septimus and Clarissa both had epic friendships that could have been something more with a member of their gender.  Clarissa had Sally Seton, who was good friends with her at school, and kissed her one night. Later in life though, Clarissa married Richard and drifted away from her friendships with Sally and Peter.  They were never as close as they had been again.  This is sort of similar to Septimus's friendship with Evans, which was probably not romantic in the way that Clarissa and Sally's could have been, but was still very defining.  Unfortunately for Septimus, Evans died right before the end of the war.
Clarissa has ascended, in marrying Richard, to high social importance.  She throws parties that the Prime Minister attends.  She's married to an important government figure.  Lots of people know her, and know of her.  Septimus could have had importance in his life.  He was described (before he went to war) as an okay poet and a good clerk- someone who could be excellent given time.  And, had he not enlisted in the war, he probably could have become famous and important.  Clarissa-and-Prime-Minister-party important.
Even their marriages are similar.  Septimus marries Lucrezia because that's what's expected of him, and he thinks that marrying her will help cure him of his emotional trauma.  Clarissa marries Richard (and probably loves him) and fulfills her "destiny" to become the perfect hostess.  Peter predicts, correctly, that Clarissa will marry Richard.  Both Clarissa and Septimus do exactly what is expected of them.
After their respective traumas, both cope by retreating.  Septimus retreats into himself, becoming obsessed and hallucinating of his war experiences.  Clarissa retreats into her mask of Mrs. Richard Dalloway, and throws parties where she hides her true self while making other people feel important.

How to Win Friends and Intimidate People

While reading Mrs. Dalloway, I was struck momentarily by the line "Her only gift was knowing people almost by instinct, she thought, walking on.  If you put her in a room with some one, up went her back like a cat's; or she purred." I thought that was a little odd to mention, given that we never really heard more about this skill in the rest of the novel.  But then I read about Peter, and Miss. Kilman, and how everybody who Clarissa meets feels like they have been judged by her and found lacking. I think that maybe because Clarissa has this one talent that lets her look at someone and know them instantly, she intimidates the other characters by making them feel that she can see all their faults, or even into their souls.
 Peter is maybe the best example of this.  He thinks of Clarissa constantly during the novel, and criticizes her even as he remembers being in love with her.  Several times when he thinks of her he ends up feeling that she sees him and is looking down on him.  For example, he starts describing Clarissa to himself on page 48 "The way she said "Here is my Elizabeth!"-- that annoyed him.  Why not "Here's Elizabeth" simply?  It was insincere...There was always something cold about Clarissa, he thought," and then he suddenly transitions from looking down on her and her insincerity to feeling like he has behaved stupidly in front of her. "Overcome with shame suddenly at having been a fool; wept; been emotional; told her everything, as usual, as usual."  This is kind of abrupt for a man who, when he thinks of the woman he used to love, always remembers what he didn't like about her.
Miss Kilman also experiences the odd mirrored effect of looking down on Clarissa and then feeling judged by her.  On page 125 especially, Miss Kilman has a little outburst in which she thinks "Clarissa Dalloway had insulted her.  That she expected.  But she had not triumphed; she had not mastered the flesh.  Ugly, clumsy, Clarissa Dalloway had laughed at her for being that; and had revived the fleshly desires, for she minded looking as she did beside Clarissa." She continues along in that way for a little while longer, until Elizabeth interrupts her to ask what department she wanted.  Here we have Kilman, who pities Clarissa and finds all sorts of faults in her, feeling like Clarissa finds her unworthy and ugly.  It nearly makes Kilman cry just thinking about it. 
Even Richard feels the effect of Clarissa's soul gazing, although (maybe because he's been married to her for thirty years) he is not as intimidated.  When he gives Clarissa the flowers and fails to tell her that he loves her, he still feels that she understood.  "But how lovely, she said, taking his flowers.  She understood; she understood without his speaking; his Clarissa." (Page 115)  This is just kind of a really cute scene that shows how well Clarissa and Richard suit each other, and how Clarissa's weird people-vision isn't always terrible.
I would have more examples, but it's getting late and I have other stuff to do.  I'm also tired, so if this is totally unintelligible I'm sorry.  I guess I could be totally wrong about Clarissa's strangely mentioned skill intimidating people?  I just think that it makes sense, given that lots of the characters think vicious things about Clarissa and then feel like she looks down on them.  If she could know people at a glance it would explain how she makes everyone at her parties feel welcomed and important...