The conceptual problem you're running into is that Perl's OO model isn't "normal". Every object is a reference, no matter how you slice'n'dice it. This is unlike other languages.
Indeed! What amazes me most of Perl's object model is that not only it integrates nicely with the rest of the language even being more of an afterthought than a design feature (IIUC - bu then I began with 5.6.1), but above all that notwithstanding its semplicity it's possible with relatively moderate efforts to imitate different OO models from other languages...