The problem is probably that XML::Parser is an object factory: it generates XML::Parser::Expat objects with each parse or parsefile call. The handlers then receive XML::Parser::Expat objects and not XML::Parser objects.

There is a way to store data in the XML::Parser object and to access it in the handlers though: use the 'Non-Expat-Options' argument when creating the XML::Parser:

#!/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use XML::Parser;

my $p= new XML::Parser(
        'Non-Expat-Options' => { my_option => "toto" },
        Handlers => { Start => \&start, }
                      );
$p->parse( '<a />');

sub start
  { my( $pe, $elt, %atts)= @_;
    print "my option: ", $pe->{'Non-Expat-Options'}->{my_option}, "\n"
+;
  }
[download]

This is certainly ugly but it works!

Update: note that the data is still stored in the XML::Parser object though, as shown by this code:

#!/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use XML::Parser;

my $p= new XML::Parser(
        'Non-Expat-Options' => { my_option => "1" },
        Handlers => { Start => \&start, }
                      );
$p->parse( '<a />');
$p->parse( '<b />');

sub start
  { my( $pe, $elt, %atts)= @_;
    print "element: $elt - my option: ", 
          $pe->{'Non-Expat-Options'}->{my_option}++, "\n";
    $p->parse( '<c />') 
       unless( $pe->{'Non-Expat-Options'}->{my_option} > 3);
  }
[download]

Which outputs:

element: a - my option: 1
element: c - my option: 2
element: c - my option: 3
element: b - my option: 4
[download]