Unfallen Man in the book of Genesis is given this description:
Genesis 2:8-9, 15-25
'Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ...
Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat , for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him." Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky , and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said,"This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.'
Obviously, a good deal of ink has been spilled over the years discussing what this means, but to give a very, very brief synopsis....
Unfallen Man was in communion with God and with each other. This means that there was a trust and openness inherent in their interactions, and that they willed the good of each other. Adam recognizes that he is different from all the animals, but that Eve is 'bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh'. Not only that, but their home is a garden where good things grow, and they are the caretakers, suggesting a harmony with nature and their environment that is destroyed in the Fall. Also, there is no shame, because they are guiltless...they have nothing to hide from one another, and nothing to fear in being fully known by each other. They walk and talk with God in the garden, and again have no reason to fear Him.
That all changes after the arrival of the serpent.... The consequences of the Fall of Man in the book of Genesis are as follows:
Genesis 3:16
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."
Genesis 3:17-19
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
The consequences here are stark and concrete, but also very much symbolic. The temptation of reaching for forbidden knowledge resulted in a loss of innocence, and a loss of that communion with God, each other, and their environment. No longer do they live in a garden with happy little trees - now they have to fight the earth to get their food, and it's hard work with little reward.
Sex...well, there are multiple opinions about sex related to the Fall. Some theologians hold that Adam and Eve were innocent like children before the Fall, and thus there was no sex. Others hold that they were spouses who enjoyed sex prior to the Fall, but it was part of that perfect communion they enjoyed with one another - lacking any of the confusion or power dynamics or 'battle of the sexes' or lust that you would find as a matter of course in a fallen world. Certainly, the consequences of the Fall introduce lust and a tendency of people to use one another. No longer can one just trust that another has your best interest at heart, and no longer do you 'will the good of another' as a matter of course, but (naturally) seek your own benefit or pleasure in relationships. There is shame in actions that are not based on love and trust and fidelity. All terribly depressing (and in serious need of redemption, but that's *another* story).
And of course there is the consequence of mortality - death. If only Adam and Eve hadn't fallen, we would not be subject to death! That's...kinda a big deal, and changes everything.
The common denominator in all of these consequences is that there is suffering, and that each human is now cut off, no longer part of a perfect communion where they are in harmony with each other and God and their environment, but at odds with all of these things. After the Fall, each human is isolated and alone in a way that Unfallen Man never experienced. They try to hide from God; they cover themselves. And that does not deal with their shame.
How much of that did Tolkien want to mimic in his Fall of Man in Middle Earth? Probably some core parts of this are meant to be the same; he was writing as someone who believed these truths. And yet...not all of it would be the same. It's like saying that someone who believes in the Trinity and angels can accept that Iluvatar and the Valar are similar representations of these things. There's a certain parallel that's clear, but it's not exactly the same.
One major difference is that in Tolkien's world, death is the Gift of Ilúvatar to Men. Death is *not* a consequence of the Fall, but was always meant to be available to Men - they can leave the Circles of the World and are not bound by fate the way everything else is. Now, the fear of death is certainly a consequence of the Fall, and it's possible that this 'gift of Men' is all an elvish perspective and not how Men would see it at all. Certainly, in the Athrabeth, it comes out that Men do not think they were always mortal, and Finrod is both impressed and terrified by the idea that whatever happened to them could have changed their nature so drastically. He also...doesn't really believe that. Again...elvish perspective. Who is right? And does it matter for our purposes? It probably won't really matter until we get to the fates of the Half-elven. The idea that Mandos can't deny the Gift of Ilúvatar to the children of elf-mortal unions only works as described if you understand that it was meant as a gift, not a curse. And then of course it will be very important in understanding the Fall of Numenor (but we can probably get away with explaining that in a myriad of different ways, not necessarily relying on this).
So...if the consequence of the Fall isn't about death and mortality, what is it about? I think that it's natural to focus on mortality (and in a world populated with immortal elves, the mortals stand out starkly). So we have to focus on the other consequences of the Fall - of being cut off from Ilúvatar, cut off from each other, cut off from nature. Fallen Man (in Tolkien's world) has to have lost something and been fundamentally changed by his encounter with Morgoth. That loss of communion/understanding/connection to the world is clear in how much more difficult it is for Men to engage in elvish magic or art. For the elves, it's quite natural, a talent or practice. But for Men...it is not.
How would we show that? We aren't going to show Unfallen Man, beyond brief glimpses. And so we are left with the contrast between Fallen Men (who are like us)...and Elves.
'The Naked and the Nude,' a poem by Robert Graves (contemporary of Tolkien and fellow WWI soldier) gets at the difference between Fallen and Unfallen views of nakedness, shame, and communion.
https://allpoetry.com/The-Naked-And-The-Nude
