In communication, clapping from the audience is considered:

In communication clapping from the audience is considered as the response or the feedback of the receiver.

Explanation:

Communication is a two way process. The person who wants to initiate a conversation encodes a message and sends it to the receiver through some medium. The receiver after receiving the message interprets it then sends a reply as the response to the sender. In this way the cycle of communication is completed.

In a public performance, the performer, be it a speaker or an artist, acts as the sender. His performance is the encoded message. When the audience claps ,it is the response. The audience's feedback after decoding the performance is their round of applause through clapping.

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.