$ perl -le " print 041 "
33

$ perl -le " print chr 041 "
!

$ perl -le " print chr 33  "
!

$ perl -le " print ord q{!}  "
33
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So the integer 33 is written in octal as 041, and if you chr 33 you get !

Make sense?

In a double quoted string 041 is 041, but \041 is chr 33 (octal escape)

$ perl -le " print qq{041}  "
041

$ perl -le " print qq{\041}  "
!
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