Final answer:
The statement that traditional tragedy heroes and heroines are everyday people is false. Traditional tragedies often feature protagonists of nobility with a tragic flaw. Modern tragedies introduce everyday characters facing profound ethical challenges.
Step-by-step explanation:
In traditional tragedy, the heroes and heroines are not everyday people; this statement is false. The key element of a tragic hero, as defined in Aristotle's Poetics, is that the character is usually someone of nobility, renowned, and prosperous, and who falls from grace not due to inherent evil but rather a tragic flaw or error.
Greek tragedies often focus on powerful figures like kings or military leaders who are brought down by their hubris or a twist of fate, and classic tragedies also maintain this aspect, with protagonists being powerful male characters who face ethical dilemmas.
However, modern tragedies introduced by playwrights like Henrik Ibsen, and further developed by 20th-century practitioners like Arthur Miller, diversified the concept. They retained the structure of characters encountering ethical choices, but the characters were now more relatable, ordinary people. These changes allowed for the tragedies to become more personal and relevant to contemporary audiences.