The Proxy Pattern is a design principle where a substitute, or 'proxy,' controls access to another object. It's used to add extra functionality, such as managing complex operations, controlling resource access, or handling network communication.

Consider a situation in which you have a highly valuable or complex object. You wouldn't want everyone to have direct access to it, right? Perhaps you just want to add some extra logic, like access control or lazy initialization, or it's too sensitive or heavy. This is where the Proxy Pattern becomes useful.