“It should be Christmas Day, I am sure,” said she, “on which one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge.” What does the term odious most closely mean as used in paragraph 80? A christmas carol

The word "odious" seems to mean something unpleasant or not pleasing.

Explanation:

Look at the context of the sentence. You can see that the word odious is being thrown in with words such as stingy and hard, therefore implying that it must mean something negative.

as for symbolic actions, the narrator's tearing down the wallpaper in an attempt to find the "woman" in the wallpaper represents her struggle to retain or regain her sanity.   the wallpaper has been part of her confinement and by her tearing it down, she is freeing herself from that confinement.